LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


SKETCHES 


RISE,  PROGRESS,  AND  DECLINE 


SECESSION; 


iltt  0f  $mml  pteitea  among 


BY  W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 

EDITOR  OF  THE  KNOXVILLE  WHIO. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
GEOEGE    W.   CHILD  S, 

628  &  630  CHESTNUT  ST. 

APPLEGATE  &  CO.,  43  MAIN  ST.,  CINCINNATI. 

1862. 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1862,  by 

WILLIAM  G.  BROWNLOW, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Eastern 
District  of  Pennsylvania. 

STEREOTYPED  BY  L.  JOHNSON  &  CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 


TO 

Every  honest  Patriot  citizen, 

and   unconditional    Union    man,  who 

loves  Loyalty  and  despises  Rebellion,  -whether 

perpetrated  North  or  South,  under  one  pretence  or 

another,  for  the  sake  of  office,  power,  fame,  money,  or 

malicious    resentment ;      To    every   intelligent    reading 

man,  who,  to  whatever  party  he  may  belong,  is  unwill?ng 

to  see  his  Government  overthrown  by  wicked  and  designing 

men,  and  who  has  resolved  to  live  and  die  beneath  the  folds  of  the 

Star-Spangled  Banner :  To  my  companions  in  the  Knoxville  Jail,  who, 

with  me,  swore  upon  the    altar  of  our  country  that,  despite  the  gallowa 

and  the  prison,  they  would  adhere  to  the  Flag  of  the  Federal  Union,  and  -who 

look  to  the  mild  umpirage  of  the  Union  as  the  only  shield  of  nationality,  is  this  work 


bg  its 


"Who,  during  the  progress  of   this  revolution,  has  opposed  it  at  every  step,  regardless 

of  consequences  personal  to  himself,  and  of  what  designing  men   might  say  or 

think,  or  of  what  a  corrupt  and  pensioned  Southern  Press  might  charge, 

as  to  motives ;    who  still  bears  in  mind  that  it  was  WASHINGTON 

who  told  ua.  "  THE  CONSTITUTION  is   SAOREDI.Y  OBX-IQATOBY 

UPON   AI/L  ;"    and    that   it   was    JACKSON   who    said, 

"  THE    UNION,   IT    MUST    BE    PRESERVED  !" 

This  is  a  truth  now  revealed  to  us, 
"Which  kings  and  prophets  waited  for. 
And  sought,  but  never  found." 


PREFACE. 


I  HAVE  prepared  this  work  from  the  single 
stand-point  of  uncompromising  devotion  to  the 
American  Union  as  established  by  our  fathers, 
and  unmitigated  hostility  to  the  armed  rebels  who 
are  seeking  its  destruction.  My  ancestors  fought 
in  its  defence ;  and  while  their  blood  flows  in  my 
veins  I  shall  instinctively  recoil  from  bartering 
away  the  glory  of  its  past  and  the  prophecy  of 
its  future  for  the  stained  record  of  that  vile  thing, 
begotten  by  fraud,  crime,  and  bad  ambition,  chris- 
tened a  Southern  Confederacy.  I  cannot  ex- 
change historic  renown  for  disgrace,  national 
honor  for  infamy,  how  splendid  soever  may  be 
the  bribe  or  how  violent  soever  may  be  the  com- 
pulsion. This  is  my  faith  as  an  American  citizen ; 
and  this  book  will  show  how  sorely  it  has  been 
put  to  the  test.  I  claim,  however,  no  merit, 
further  than  that  arising  from  the  discharge  of 
a  simple  duty  both  of  religion  and  patriotism. 
Thousands  of  my  fellow-citizens  have  been 


6  PBEFACE. 

equally  faithful  among  the  faithless.  Their  suffer- 
ings may  be  conceived  from  this  narrative  of  my 
own. 

Indeed,  it  is  not  from  the  slightest  desire  of 
self-glorification  that  I  have  spoken  so  freely  of 
jnyself.  It  would  have  been  sheer  affectation  of 
modesty  to  attempt  by  circumlocution  of  speech 
to  do  otherwise.  For  I  have,  in  this  matter, 
rather  regarded  myself  as  a  type  of  the  large 
body  of  loyal  people  in  the  border  States,  and 
have,  accordingly,  been  the  more  unreserved,  in- 
asmuch as  I  felt  that  I  might  assume  to  some 
extent  to  speak  in  their  behalf.  It  is  important 
that  our  countrymen  of  the  North  should  clearly 
understand  the  embarrassing  position  of  this  class, 
and  the  peculiar  privations  they  have  been  com- 
pelled to  undergo.  It  is  chiefly  due  to  them 
that  the  battle-field  of  the  Rebellion  has  not  been 
transferred  to  Northern  homes.  Their  geogra- 
phical location  and  political  elements  are  such 
that,  upon  the  soil  which  they  inhabit,  loyalty  and 
treason  have  overlapped,  and,  being  thus  con- 
fronted face  to  face,  they  have  been  plunged  into 
all  the  horrors  of  discord  and  anarchy,  of  divided 
communities  and  sundered  households.  In  many 


PEEFACE.  7 

respects,  however,  we  of  that  region  do  not  wholly 
sympathize  with  the  North  any  more  than  with  the 
extreme  South.  We  deprecate  alike  the  fanatical 
agitators  of  one  section  and  the  Disunion  dema- 
gogues of  the  other.  I  believe  I  represent  the 
views  of  multitudes  of  ever-true  and  now  suffering 
patriots  when  I  declare  that,  Southern  man  and 
slave-holder  as  I  am,  if  the  South  in  her  madness 
and  folly  will  force  the  issue  upon  the  country,  of 
Slavery  and  no  Union,  or  a  Union  and  no  Slavery, 
I  am  for  the  Union,  though  every  other  institution 
in  the  country  perish.  I  am  for  sustaining  this 
Union  if  it  shall  require  "  coercion"  or  "  subjuga- 
tion," or,  what  is  worse,  the  annihilation  of  the 
rebel  population  of  the  land.  These  peculiarities 
in  my  position,  as  an  East-Tennesseean,  it  will  be 
seen,  have  contributed  to  mould  the  views  which  I 
have  expressed. 

I  am,  therefore,  prepared  to  expect  that  many 
readers  will  not  concur  in  all  that  I  have  said. 
But  I  do  verily  believe  that,  as  a  National  man, — - 
having  had  an  opportunity,  as  from  an  interme- 
diate eminence,  to  view  this  question  on  both 
sides, — and  having  observed  the  bearings  of  the 
whole  subject  for  thirty  years  past,  I  am  enabled 


8  PREFACE. 

to  suggest  something  worthy  the  consideration  of 
niy  countrymen.  Hence  I  have  not  consulted  the 
opinions  of  others,  nor  reflected  whether  what  I 
say  would  be  acceptable  or  unacceptable,  would 
render  the  writer  popular  or  unpopular.  I  seek 
only  to  utter  the  profound  convictions  of  my  own 
mind,  in  order  that,  God  willing,  I  may  be  of  some 
benefit  in  my  day  and  generation,  and,  without 
fear  or  favor,  come  weal  or  woe,  may  have  the  sad 
privilege  of  warning  my  fellow-citizens,  even  if  I 
may  not  enjoy  the  cheerful  satisfaction  of  con- 
vincing them. 

I  have  suffered  deeply  in  person  and  estate, 
have  avoided  no  responsibility,  have  endured  evil 
treatment  and  imprisonment,  and  been  compelled 
day  by  day  to  contemplate  the  near  prospect  of 
a  brutal  death  upon  the  gallows, — all  in  behalf 
of  the  sacred  cause  I  have  espoused.  I  avouch 
these  things  as  evidence  of  sincerity.  Not  only 
so,  but  they  have  left  me  in  no  mood  for  the  use 
of  softened  forms  of  speech  in  narrating  such  acts 
or  depicting  the  actors.  Hence  I  have  spoken 
plainly.  Extreme  fastidiousness  of  taste  may, 
perhaps,  shrink  with  over-sensitiveness  from  some 
of  the  language  I  have  employed.  But  it  was  no 


PREFACE.  9 

time  for  dalliance  with  polished  sentences  or  en- 
ticing words;  for  an  imminent  necessity — like  the 
"  burden"  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophets — was  upon 
us,  and  the  cause  of  our  LORD  and  LAND  could  be 
best  served  by  the  sturdy  rhetoric  of  defiance 
and  the  unanswerable  logic  of  facts.  The  traitors 
merited  a  sword-thrust  style,  and  deserved  the 
strongest  epithet  I  have  applied.  My  persecution 
by  them  was  such  that  I  had  a  fair  right  to 
handle  them  roughly :  they  were  not  worth  any 
other  mode  of  treatment;  and  I  have  written  what 
I  have  written. 

I  cannot  close  this  preface  without  expressing 
my  thanks  for  the  generous  reception  I  have  met 
with  at  the  North.  In  Cincinnati,  Columbus,  Chi- 
cago, Philadelphia,  New  York, — indeed,  wherever 
I  have  gone, — I  have  been  welcomed  by  indi- 
viduals and  by  public  bodies  with  demonstrations 
of  honor  and  kindness  which  seem  like  a  provi- 
dential recompense  for  all  I  have  endured.  I 
shall  preserve  a  life-long  recollection  of  such  uni- 
versal and  spontaneous  sympathy,  and  leave  its 
precious  memory  and  memorials  as  an  heir-loom 
to  the  latest  generation  of  my  descendants.  I 
bear  this  testimony  all  the  more  willingly,  because 


10  PREFACE. 

these  courtesies  vindicate  me  from  aspersions,  and 
are  occasioned  by  no  modification  or  concealment 
of  my  opinions.  I  have,  everywhere,  condemned 
the  disorganizing  propagandists  of  the  North,  and 
have  publicly  proclaimed  that  I  was  a  Southerner 
by  birth,  education,  and  habits ;  yet,  when  I  also 
announced  that  I  was  a  National  man  and  uncom- 
promisingly for  the  Union,  I  found  that  other 
things  were  forgotten,  and  that  I  had  touched  a 
chord  which  made  us  all  of  kin. 

God  grant  that  we  may,  as  Sections,  Churches, 
and  Individuals,  realize  how  great  a  share  each  of 
us  has  had  in  bringing  about  our  present  calami- 
ties, and,  consequently,  how  much  of  the  respon- 
sibility falls  upon  self  as  well  as  upon  others ! 
When  this  shall  be  felt,  and  when  a  proper  spirit 
shall  accompany  the  conviction,  the  horrors  of  this 
wicked  war  will  be  appreciated,  the  hand  of  ven- 
geance will  be  stayed,  and 

"  Returning  Justice  lift  aloft  her  scale." 

W.  G.  B. 

PHILADELPHIA,  May,  1862. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  1 13 

Autobiographical  Sketch— Northern  and  Southern  Agitators  alike  to  be  Dreaded 
—Mutineers  on  board  the  Ship  of  State— South  Carolina  Methodists— The 
Right  of  Secession  Argued — Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Jackson  all  deny  the 
Right  of  Secession. 

CHAPTER   U 65 

Thirty-Nine  Lashes  and  a  Coat  of  Tar  and  Feathers  promised  me — Reply  to  W. 
L.  Yancey  on  the  Platform  in  Knoxville — Denying  the  Right  of  Secession — 
Pronouncing  the  African  Slave-Trade  Piracy — My  Ancestors  Fighting  for  this 
Country— South  Carolina  the  Resort  of  Tories— Nullification  in  1832— Nullifi- 
cation among  the  Ancients. 

CHAPTER  III 75 

Case  of  Rev.  Dr.  Neely,  the  Alabama  Secessionist — Praying  the  South  not  to 
submit  to  the  Inauguration  of  Lincoln — Exhortation  to  Moderation. 

CHAPTER  IV 81 

South  Carolina  in  1780 — Her  Citizens  Tories  and  on  the  side  of  the  British  Crown 
—Two  hundred  and  twenty-six  Tories  in  Charleston  addressing  Sir  Henry 
Clinton— R.  Barnwell  Rhett  changes  his  Name— The  Descendants  of  these 
Tories  spread  over  the  South — South  Carolina  Royalty. 

CHAPTER  V 89 

Threatening  to  Hang  us  for  our  Principles — Charges  us  with  being  a  Yankee — 
The  Wickedness  of  Secession — Origin  of  Secession — South  Carolina  Fires  the 
First  Gun— Freedom  of  Speech  to  be  Denied— Standing  out  for  the  Union. 

CHAPTER  VI 96 

Patronage  withdrawn  from  my  Paper — Predicting  the  Success  of  Secession — The 
Author  always  after  Office— Indebtedness  to  Stores— Our  own  Partisans  re- 
fusing to  Endorse  us — Members  of  the  Church  Spurning  us. 

CHAPTER  VII 105 

Position  of  Border-State  Union  Men — The  Author's  Views  of  Slavery  given  by 
request — Blow  upon  Fort  Sumter  struck  with  a  view  to  force  Virginia  to  Secede 
—Northern  and  Southern  Clergy— Reign  of  Terror  in  the  South— Virginia 
Statesmen  all  dead — For  the  Union  under  all  Circumstances. 

CHAPTER  VIII 114 

The  Great  Enemy  of  the  Cotton  States — Not  an  Abolitionist — Our  Sympathies 
•with  the  Government — The  Rebellion  Originated  with  the  South— Charge  of 
seeking  to  Subjugate  the  South  a  False  Issue— The  Knoxville  Whig  refusing 
to  Lie  and  Boast  for  the  Traitors — Not  Looking  to  Reward  in  Dollars  and  Cents 
— Standing  or  Falling  upon  a  Platform  of  Principles. 

CHAPTER  IX 121 

Secession  Forgeries  at  Knoxville — Attempt  to  Destroy  Senator  Johnson,  and  to 
Embezzle  Money  from  Amos  A.  Lawrence — The  Guilty  Parties  Detected — A 
Warning  to  all  Future  Conspirators. 

11 


12  CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

CHAPTER  X 134 

The  Spirit  of  Secession — Savage  Treatment  of  a  Preacher — Attempting  to  give 
the  Author  the  Small-Pox — Proposition  to  have  us  Mobbed — Treatment  of  an 
Old  Man — Arrest  of  Mr.  Dickinson — Personal  Assaults  in  Prayer — Raising 
Lincoln's  Blockade  by  Prayer — The  Prayer-Meeting  Sign — Forming  a  Union 
Church — Shepherds  Feeding  their  Flocks — Secession  an  Epidemic — The  Real 
Traitors— False  Dispatches— At  their  Old  Tricks  again. 

CHAPTER  XI 152 

The  Distinction  bstween  the  Parties — Infamy  of  the  Leaders  of  this  Rebellion — 
Rebel  Stealing  in  Tennessee — Rebel  Stealing  in  Richmond — Swindling  Horse- 
Contracts — The  Scriptures  against  these  Extortioners. 

CHAPTER  XII 158 

The  Conspiracy  to  Break  up  the  Government — The  Plot  and  its  Developments — 
Testimony  of  Secession  Witnesses — Documents  worthy  of  being  Preserved,  and 
worthy  of  being  Studied  by  the  Friends  of  the  Union. 

CHAPTER  XIII 177 

Which  Side  is  the  Lord  on? — Teachings  of  Secession  Clergymen — Prayer  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Baldwin — Providences  of  God  before  and  since  the  Development  of  this 
Great  Conspiracy — The  South  has  had  a  Preponderating  Influence  in  the  Con- 
trol of  the  Government — God  has  arranged  the  Conditions  of  this  Great  Drama 
to  favor  the  Government  of  the  United  States — Union  Victories  of  1861 — Cities 
and  Towns  taken  from  the  South,  by  Divine  Permission,  in  1862 — Gambling- 
Hells  in  Richmond — Profane  Swearing  and  Drinking  in  the  Rebel  Army — 
"Wickedness  of  the  Southern  Clergy — Loss  of  Rebel  Generals. 

CHAPTER  XIV 191 

Speech  of  W.  G.  Brownlow,  delivered  in  Knoxville,  in  October,  1861,  before  the 
late  Presidential  Election,  before  the  Bell-and-Everett  Club — Proves  a  Conspi- 
racy against  the  Government  by  the  Breckinridge  Democracy — Concedes  the 
Election  of  Lincoln,  but  denies  that  to  be  a  Sufficient  Cause  for  Dissolving  the 
Union — The  Speaker  Declared  for  the  Union  at  all  Hazards — My  Last  Interview 
with  John  Bell. 

CHAPTER  XV 210 

East  Tennessee — Population — Face  of  the  Country — Climate,  Soil,  and  Produc- 
tions— Rivers  and  Minerals — Knoxville,  Description  thereof — The  "Register" 
Newspaper  and  its  Degraded  Editor — Railroads  and  Approaches  to  East  Tennes- 
see— Description  of  Cumberland  Gap — Voting  out  of  the  Union — East  Tennes- 
see Loyal  to  the  Last  I 

CHAPTER  XVI 224 

Candidate  for  Governor. 
CHAPTER  XVII 245 

Exhorting  the  Secession  Leaders  to  Volunteer — Governor  Harris  calls  for  Thirty 
Thousand  Volunteers — The  Brave  Secessionists  try  to  enlist  Union  men — Take 
Offence  at  our  Ironical  Articles,  and  stop  our  Publication — Our  Farewell  Ad- 
dress to  our  Patrons. 

CHAPTER  XVIII 256 

General  Zollicoffer's  Correspondence — Highly  Important  Revelations  made  by  the 
Rebel  Leaders — Union  Feeling  in  East  Tennessee — The  People  of  East  Tennes- 
see to  be  crushed  out. 

CHAPTERS  XIX.  TO  XXII 271-458 

Incidents  connected  with  the  Great  Southern  Rebellion  in  Tennessee;  to  which 
is  added  a  Sketch  of  Prison-Life,  and  the  Subsequent  Release  and  Journey  of 
the  Author. 


BROWNLOW'S 
EXPERIENCES  AMONG  THE  REBELS. 


GHAPTBB  I. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL     SKETCH NORTHERN    AND    SOUTHERN    AGITATORS 

ALIKE  TO  BE    DREADED — MUTINEERS  ON   BOARD  THE    SHIP  OP  STATE 

SOUTH  CAROLINA  METHODISTS THE  RIGHT  OF  SECESSION  ARGUED 

JEFFERSON,   MADISON,  AND  JACKSON  ALL    DENY  THE    EIGHT  OF  SE- 
CESSION. 

IT  is  a  delicate  task  for  a  modest  man  to  perform, 
when  he  undertakes  to  write  out  a  memorial  of  himself, 
and  especially  when  he  shall  undertake  to  give  both  his 
private  and  public  life.  But  as  I  have  never  arisen  to 
any  thing  like  eminence,  and  as  it  is  the  custom  of  such 
only  as  have,  to  write  out  a  full  history  of  themselves, 
and  to  give  their  bad  as  well  as  good  deeds  to  the  world, 
I  will  be  spared  the  labor  and  mortification  of  any 
unfavorable  disclosures. 

It  will,  perhaps,  be  urged  that  both  sides  of  a  man's 
picture  of  life  should  be  given,  and  then  the  reader, 
having  the  whole  man  before  him,  will  be  the  better 
prepared  to  award  to  him  a  righteous  verdict.  Others 
will  insist  that  a  man  should  so  conduct  himself  as  to 

2  13 


14  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

be  wholly  free  from  improprieties,  especially  if  he  be  a 
member  of  the  Church,  or  wear  clerical  robes.  To  this 
I  leply,  that  if  the  memoirs  of  only  such  as  have  lived 
and  died  without  fault,  and  without  incurring  the  dis- 
pleasure of  designing  and  bad  men,  were  written,  we 
should  seldom,  if  ever,  see  a  production  of  the  kind. 

I  lay  no  claim  whatever  to  inimitable  excellencies ; 
but  I  do  claim  that  my  good  and  evil  deeds,  if  placed 
in  a  scale,  would  not  be  so  perfectly  poised  that  neither 
end  would  preponderate !  An  anecdote  of  my  life  will 
illustrate  my  views  of  this  subject. 

Whilst  in  attendance  at  an  Annual  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  in  Abingdon,  Virginia,  some  twelve 
years  ago,  I  suffered  from  an  attack  of  fever;  and, 
either  from  the  influence  of  medicine,  or  of  fever  on  the 
brain,  I  became  a  little  flighty.  The  opinion  prevailed 
that  I  would  die,  and  the  venerable  BISHOP  CAPERS, 
and  other  ministers,  became  anxious  to  know  how  the 
"eccentric  Parson"  felt  in  view  of  an  exchange  of 
worlds.  Accordingly,  they  visited  my  room,  and  the 
Bishop  read  the  Scriptures,  and  sang  and  prayed  with 
and  for  me.  On  taking  his  leave  of  me, — holding  me 
by  the  hand  and  looking  me  full  in  the  face, — he  in- 
quired what  my  prospects  were  beyond  the  grave.  It 
is  said — and  I  have  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  state- 
ment— that  I  returned  for  an  answer,  ""Well,  Bishop, 
if  I  had  my  life  to  live  over  again,  I  could  improve  it 
in  many  respects,  and  would  try  to  do  so.  However, 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  16 

if  the  books  have  been  properly  kept  in  the  other  world, 
there  is  a  small  balance  in  my  favor  /" 

I  have  lived  long  enough  in  this  present  evil  world  to 
have  enlisted  the  sympathies  of  many  friends,  and  at 
the  same  time  to  have  excited  the  bitter  resentments 
of  many  foes.  This  affords  me  proof  that  I  have  not 
been  a  negative  character.  That  a  man  engaged  in  the 
work  of  propagating  Christianity,  in  opposing  error 
and  defending  the  cause  of  truth,  and,  finally,  in  going 
about  endeavoring  to  do  good,  should  find  himself  ex- 
posed to  enemies,  or  should  meet  with  violent  and  pro- 
tracted opposition,  may  seem  strange.  But  history  and 
observation  inform  us  that  such  has  been  the  lot  of  all 
decided  public  men,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree.  While 
some  emblazon  a  man's  virtues,  others  will  amplify  his 
faults.  A  majority,  however,  labor 

"The  struggling  pangs  of  conscious  truth  to  hide, 
To  quench  the  blushes  of  ingenuous  shame," 

rather  than  pursue  the  opposite  course ;  and  it  is  more 
than  likely  that  on  this  account  religious  sectarians  and 
political  partisans  have  denied  me  justice.  For  it  has 
certainly  been  my  lot  in  life  to  have  the  shafts  of  un- 
merited censure  hurled  at  me ;  and  since  this  GREAT 
KEBELLION  has  been  inaugurated,  I  have  been  doomed 
to  bear  the  base  insinuations  of  invidious  tongues  and 
pens  in  Bebeldom ! 

Perhaps  it  will  be  asked,  "Who  is  the  person  that  offers 
this  volume  to  the  world  ?  In  this  the  inquisitive  reader 


16  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

shall  be  gratified;  for  short  and  simple  are  the  domestic 
annals  of  the  writer,  though  in  his  fifty-seventh  year. 
I  am  the  eldest  son  of  JOSEPH  A.  BEOWNLOW,  who  was 
born  and  raised  in  Kockbridge  county,  Virginia,  and 
died  in  Sullivan  county,  in  East  Tennessee,  in  1816. 
My  father  died  when  I  was  so  young  that  I  could  not 
have  been  a  judge  of  his  character ;  but  it  has  been  a 
source  of  consolation  to  me  to  hear  him  spoken  of  by 
his  old  associates  and  schoolmates  (General  SAM 
HOUSTON  among  them)  as  a  man  of  good  sense,  brave 
independence,  and  of  sterling  integrity.  He  was  a 
private  in  a  Tennessee  company  in  the  War  of  1812. 
Two  of  his  brothers  were  at  the  battle  of  the  Horseshoe, 
under  General  JACKSON,  two  others  of  them  died  naval 
officers,  and  their  remains  sleep  in  Norfolk  and  New 
Orleans. 

The  death  of  my  father  was  a  grievous  affliction  to 
my  mother,  as  she  was  left  with  five  helpless  children, — 
three  sons  ancj.  two  daughters, — four  of  whom  are  now 
dead,  having  heard  of  the  death  of  the  last  of  the  four 
since  my  banishment  from  home  !  My  mother's  maiden 
name  was  CATHAEINE  GANNAWAY, — a  Virginian  like- 
wise, of  respectable  parentage,  and  slave-owners. 

She  departed  this  transitory  life  in  less  than  three 
months  after  the  death  of  her  husband.  Being  naturally 
mild  and  agreeable  in  her  temperament,  she  was  warmly 
endeared  to  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintance. 
But  their  consolation  was  in  this,  that,  while  sinking  into 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  17 

tLe  3old  embrace  of  death,  she  was  happy  in  the  religion 
of  Christ. 

I  was  born  in  Wythe  county,  Virginia,  on  the  29th 
of  August,  1805.  After  the  death  of  my  parents,  I 
lived  with  my  mother's  relations,  who  raised  me  up  to 
hard  labor,  until  I  was  eighteen  years  old,  when  I 
removed  to  Abingdon,  in  that  State,  and  served  as  a 
regular  apprentice  to  the  trade  of  a  house*carpenter.  I 
have  been  a  laboring-man  all  my  life  long,  and  have 
acted  upon  the  Scriptural  maxim  of  eating  my  bread  in 
the  sweat  of  my  brow.  Though  a  Southern  man  in 
feeling  and  principle,  I  do  not  think  it  degrading  to  a 
man  to  labor,  as  do  most  of  the  Southern  Disunionists. 
Whether  East  or  West,  North  or  South,  I  recognize  the 
dignity  of  labor,  and  look  forward  to  a  day,  not  very 
distant,  when  educated  labor  will  be  the  salvation  of 
this  vast  country ! 

My  education  was  imperfect  and  irregular,  even  in 
those  branches  taught  in  the  common-schools  of  the 
country.  I  labored,  after  obtaining  a  trade,  until  I 
acquired  the  means  of  again  going  to  school.  I  after- 
wards entered  the  Methodist  Travelling  Ministry,  and 
travelled  ten  years  without  intermission.  I  availed 
myself  of  this  position  to  study  and  improve  my  limited 
education,  which  I  did  in  all  the  English  branches. 

I  am  about  six  feet  high,  and  have  weighed  as  heavy 
as  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  pounds, — have  had  as 

fine  a  constitution  as  any  man  need  desire.    I  have  very 

2* 


18  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

few  gray  hairs  in  my  head,  and,  although  rather  hard" 
favored  than  otherwise,  I  will  pass  for  a  man  of  forty 
years.  I  have  had  as  strong  a  voice  as  any  man  in 
East  Tennessee^  where  I  have  resided  for  the  last  thirty 
years,  and  have  a  family  of  seven  children.  I  have  .been 
speaking  all  that  time;  and  for  the  last  twenty-five 
years  I  have  edited  and  published  a  WHIG  newspaper  i 
having  a  larger  circulation  than  any  political  paper  in 
the  State,  and  even  larger  than  all  the  papers  in  East 
Tennessee  put  together.  I  have  taken  a  part  in  all  the 
religious  and  political  controversies  of  my  day  and  time. 

I  have  written  several  books ;  but  the  one  which  has 
had  the  largest  run  is  the  one  entitled,  "The  Iron  Wheel 
Examined,  and  its  False  Spokes  Extracted," — being  a 
vindication  of  the  Methodist  Church  against  the  attacks 
of  Eev.  J.  E.  GRAVES,  of  Nashville.  My  reply  was 
published  by  the  Southern  Methodist  Publishing  House, 
and  at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  book-agents  and 
other  leading  members  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  work  of 
great  severity,  but  was  written  in  reply  to  one  of  still 
greater  severity. 

In  September,  1858,  I  was  engaged  in  a  debate  upon 
the  Slavery  question,  in  Philadelphia, with  Eev.  ABEAM 
PRYNE,  of  New  York,  in  which  I  defended  the  insti- 
tution of  Slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  South.  The  debate 
was  published  in  Philadelphia,  and  exhibits  my  senti- 
ments upon  that  great  question,  which  have  undergone 
no  change  since  then. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  19 

I  am  known  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land  as  the  "  Fighting  Parson ;"  while  I  may  say, 
without  incurring  the  charge  of  egotism,  that  no  man 
is  more  peaceable,  as  my  neighbors  will  testify.  Always 
poor,  and  always  oppressed  with  security  debts,  few 
men  in  my  section  and  of  my  limited  means  have 
given  away  more  in  the  course  of  each  year  to  chari- 
table objects.  I  have  never  been  arraigned  in  the 
Church  for  any  immorality.  I  never  played  a  card. 
I  never  was  a  profane  swearer.  I  never  drank  a  dram 
of  liquor,  until  within  a  few  years, — when  it  was  taken 
as  a  medicine.  I  never  had  a  cigar  or  chew  of  tobacco 
in  my  mouth.  I  never  was  in  attendance  at  a  theatre. 
I  never  attended  a  horse-race,  and  never  witnessed 
their  running,  save  on  the  fair-grounds  of  my  own 
county.  I  never  courted  but  one  woman ;  and  her  I 
married. 

I  may  be  allowed  to  say  that  I  have  ever  been,  as  I 
still  am,  quite  a  politician,  though  I  have  never  been 
an  office-seeker  nor  an  office-holder.  I  began  my  poli- 
tical career  in  Tennessee  in  1828,  by  espousing  the 
cause  of  JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS  as  against  ANDREW 
JACKSON.  The  latter  I  regard  as  having  been  a  true 
patriot  and  a  sincere  lover  of  his  country;  The 
former  I  admired  because  he  was  a  learned  statesman, 
of  pure  moral  and  private  character,  and  because  I 
regarded  him  as  a  FEDERALIST,  representing  my  poli- 
tical opinions.  I  have  all  my  life  long  been  a  FEDERAL 


20  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

WHIG  of  the  WASHINGTON  AND  ALEXANDER  HAMILTON 
school.  I  am  the  advocate  of  a  concentrated  Federal 
Government,  or  of  a  strong  central  Government,  able 
to  maintain  its  dignity,  to  assert  its  authority,  and  to 
crush  out  any  rebellion  that  may  be  inaugurated.  I 
have  never  been  a  Sectional,  but  at  all  times  a  National 
man,  supporting  men  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice-Pre- 
sidency without  any  regard  on  which  side  of  Mason 
&  Dixon's  Line  they  were  born,  or  resided  at  the 
time  of  their  nomination.  In  a  word,  I  am,  as  I  ever 
have  been,  an  ardent  WHIG,  and  CLAY  and  WEBSTER 
have  ever  been  my  standards  of  political  orthodoxy. 
With  the  breaking  up  of  old  parties,  I  have  merged 
every  thing  into  the  great  question  of  the  "Union, 
the  Constitution,  and  the  Enforcement  of  the  Laws." 
Hence,  I  am  an  unconditional  Union  man,  and  advo- 
cate the  preservation  of  the  Union  at  the  expense  of 
all  other  considerations. 

In  1832,  I  was  chosen  by  the  Holston  Annual  Con- 
ference as  a  member  of  the  General  Conference  of  the 
Methodist  Church,  which  was  held  in  Philadelphia. 
That  year  I  travelled  a  circuit  in  South  Carolina, 
having  appointments  in  the  districts  or  counties  of 
Pickens  and  Anderson,  and  also  in  Franklin  county, 
Georgia,  south  of  the  Tugaloo  Eiver.  Nullification 
raged  in  South  Carolina  to  a  fearful  exter  t,  and 
men  of  all  professions  took  sides,  either  in  favor  of 
the  General  Government  or  of  the  South  Carolina 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  21 

Ordinance  of  Disunion.  Mr.  CALHOUN,  who  was  an 
able  statesman  and  a  man  of  most  excellent  private 
character,  resided  in  Anderson,  and  was  almost  an 
object  of  worship  among  the  Nullifiers.  At  least, 
when  he  took  snuff,  they  all  sneezed!  The  Union 
sentiment  was  very  strong,  but  Union  men  were  in  the 
minority.  I  took  a  firm  stand  in  favor  of  the  Federal 
Government,  and  whatever  influence  I  had  was  thrown 
into  the  scale  against  this  wicked  attempt  of  South 
Carolina  to  destroy  the  Government.  So  fierce  was 
the  opposition  to  me  in  consequence  of  the  stand  I  took, 
that  in  the  fall  of  that  year  I  published  a  pamphlet 
vindicating  myself.  This  was  thirty  years  ago ;  and  it 
will  be  refreshing  to  my  Union  friends  to  reproduce  a 
few  paragraphs  from  that  defence  : — 

"  It  is  urged  against  me  that  I  have  meddled  in  the 
politics  of  South  Carolina  and  acted  with  the  Union 
party.  Nay,  it  has  been  said  that  I  was  the  tool  of 
Colonel  SLOANE  and  Major  PERRY.  I  plead  guilty 
to  the  charge  of  having  opposed  the  heresy  of  Nullifi- 
cation, but  I  deny  having  been  the  tool  of  any  man, 
or  set  of  men.  Deeply  as  I  have  regretted  the  state 
of  things  existing  here,  and  of  the  breaking  up  of  the 
Churches,  as  well  as  the  social  intercourse  of  families 
and  neighbors,  I  do  not  regret  having  taken  sides  in 
favor  of  the  Tariff  Acts  complained  of,  of  General 
JACKSON'S  proclamation  against  Nullifiers,  and  in  favor 


22  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

of  enforcing  the  laws  of  Congress.  If  the  Tariff  Acts 
complained  of  were  unconstitutional, — which  I  do  not 
allow, — they  afford  no  plea  for  dissolving  this  Union. 
South  Carolina's  remedy  is  at  the  ballot-box  of  the 
country,  or  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  whose  judges  are  able  and,  as  I  believe,  im- 
partial. 

"  South  Carolina  is  looking  to  the  formation  of  an 
independent  Province,  but  will  not  be  allowed  any 
such  privilege,  as  her  leading  men  will  infer  from  the 
proclamation  of  Old  Hickory.  I  am  threatened  with 
proscription  and  starvation,  because  I  have  dared  to 
assert  that  no  law  has  been  passed  by  Congress,  touch- 
ing the  Tariff,  at  variance  with  the  guarantees  of  the 
Constitution  and  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  slave- 
holding  States.  So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  ask  no 
favors  of  the  enemies  of  my  Government,  either  in 
South  Carolina  or  elsewhere.  I  can  live  without  you, 
and  live  among  a  people  who  are  loyal,  and,  having  the 
fear  of  God  before  their  eyes,  they  will  be  more  likely 
to  receive  and  appreciate  the  teachings  of  the  gospel. 
That  there  are  thousands  of  patriotic  people  in  South 
Carolina,  is  true;  but  it  is  likewise  true  that  there 
were  more  Tories  here  during  the  ^Revolutionary  War 
than  in  all  the  other  States  put  together.  And  that 
the  descendants  of  these  old  Tories  are  now  in  the  lead 
of  this  Nullification  Rebellion,  needs  no  proof  what- 
ever to  make  the  charge  good.  I  talk  plainly,  for  one 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  23 

• 

who  is  in  your  midst  and  liable  to  be  mobbed  every 
day;  but  this  is  the  way  to  talk  in  times  like  these. 
I  am  not  to  be  taught  my  duty  by  a  set  of  gassy 
Union-destroyers  such  as  constitute  the  staple  of 
the  South  Carolina  chivalry.  This  attempt  by  mob- 
law  to  nullify  the  laws  of  the  General  Government  is 
but  the  development  of  a  well-planned  scheme  for  the 
ulterior  but  wicked  purpose  of  destroying  our  Govern- 
ment. It  is  a  wild,  visionary,  and  supremely  ridicu- 
lous scheme,  and  will  be  put  down,  at  all  hazards,  by 
General  JACKSON.  In  fact,  he  has  now  crushed  it 
out,  and  I  rejoice  in  its  overthrow,  though  it  may 
starve  me  out  and  drive  me  from  your  limits.  I  shall 
fall  back  into  Tennessee,  where  the  people  appreciate 
the  blessings  of  the  best  Government  in  the  world, 
and  where  the  gospel  is  likely  to  produce  some  other 
effect  than  that  of  arraying  the  people  against  the 
legal  and  constituted  authorities  of  the  land. 

Thus  did  I  write  and  publish  thirty  years  ago,  in 
the  teeth  of  the  Eebellion  of  South  Carolina !  The  prin- 
ciples I  then  avowed  I  have  cherished  and  acted  upon 
ever  since,  and  will  continue  so  to  do  to  the  end  of  life. 
I  am  a  Southern  man  by  birth,  raising,  and  education, 
and  all  my  interests  are  there ;  but  I  am  not  of  the 
number  of  those  who  believe  that  the  South  can  any 
better  preserve  its  rights  out  of  the  Union  than  in  it. 
If  those  rights  have  been  invaded, — which  I  deny, — I 


24  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

« 

hold  it  to  be  the  bounden  duty  of  every  man  in  the 
South,  as  well  as  his  highest  obligation,  to  protect 
them,  under  the  forms  of  law  and  the  guarantees  of 
the  Constitution.  These  rights  can  never  be  main- 
tained by  Secession,  but  by  a  faithful  observance  r/ 
the  Constitution  and  of  the  duties  it  imposes. 

In  October  of  the  same  year,  being  thirty  years  ago, 
I  had  a  controversy  with  a  Mr.  POSEY,  a  Calvinistic 
preacher,  a  man  of  talents ;  and  in  a  pamphlet  printed 
by  HIRAM  BARRY,  of  Knoxville,  on  page  9,  there 
appears  the  first  paragraph  I  ever  published  upon  the 
Slavery  question.  I  herewith  give  it  entire,  and  ask 
the  reader  to  examine  it,  and  compare  the  principles 
I  then  advocated  with  those  I  now  avow  : — 

"  When  I  drove  Mr.  POSEY  to  the  wall,  in  our  con- 
troversy, and  convicted  him  of  retailing  all  his  slan- 
ders of  me  upon  the  authority  of  a  negro  slave  of 
bad  character,  Bacehus,  the  property  of  his  co-laborer 
in  his  dirty  work,  Dr.  CARDES,  he  came  out  and 
taunted  me  with  the  false  charges  that  Methodist 
preachers  were  the  friends  of  negroes  and  opposed  to 
slavery,  and  that  WESLEY,  their  great  idol,  wrote  and 
preached  against  slavery !  Both  of  these  specifications 
are  false.  Many  of  the  Methodist  preachers  are  op- 
posed to  slavery;  but  as  many  more  of  them  own 
slaves  and  advocate  the  institution.  I  own  none ;  but  it 
is  because  of  my  poverty,  and  not  because  I  am  opposed 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  25 

to  owning  them.  I  am  but  a  young  man,  and  I  notice 
the  controversy  going  on  between  the  advocates  of 
slavery  and  its  opponents.  The  Methodists  in  New 
England,  and  other  denominations,  take  the  ground 
that  slave-holding  is  a  sin,  an  injustice,  a  barbarism.  I 
do  not  believe  them :  I  believe  with  the  Constitution  of 
my  country,  that  slaves  are  a  lawful  species  of  pro- 
perty, and  that  those  who  feed  and  clothe  them  well, 
and  instruct  them  in  religion,  are  better  friends  to  them 
than  those  who  set  them  at  liberty. 

"  So  far  as  Mr.  WESLEY  is  involved,  he  wrote  and 
preached  against  the  African  kidnapping-business.  I 
denounce  that,  and  so  do  all  honest  men,  whether  they 
live  in  New  England  or  these  Middle  and  Western 
States.  The  American  Congress  has  condemned  it  as 
a  piracy,  and  slave-holding  members  voted  to  do  it.  I 
have  paid  some  attention  to  this  subject,  young  as  I 
am,  because  it  is  one  day  or  other  to  shake  this  Govern- 
ment to  its  very  foundation.  I  expect  to  live  to  see 
that  day,  and  not  be  an  old  man  at  that.  The  Tariff 
question  now  threatens  the  overthrow  of  the  Govern- 
ment, but  the  Slavery  question  is  one  to-be  dreaded. 
While  I  shall  advocate  the  owning  of  'men,  women, 
and  children/  as  you  say  our  Discipline  styles  slaves, 
I  shall,  if  I  am  living,  when  the  battle  comes,  stand  by 
my  Government  and  the  Union  formed  by  our  fathers, 
as  Mr.  WESLEY  stood  by  the  British  Government,  of 
which  he  was  a  loyal  subject.  Where  will  you  stand, 


26  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Mr.  POSE Y?  Will  you  take  sides  against  your  own 
country  ?  I  shall  expect  you  to  advocate  the  freedom 
of  negroes,  as  they  seem  to  be  the  only  class  of  beings 
who  carry  news  to  you !" 

More  recently,  I  held  a  debate  in  Philadelphia  with 
Rev.  Mr.  PRYNE,  of  New  York,  upon  the  Slavery  ques- 
tion, and  the  five  discourses  are  bound  in  one  volume, 
in  the  order  in  which  they  were  delivered.  In  my  fifth 
and  last  speech,  I  took  up  the  subject  of  a  dissolution 
of  this  Union,  and  I  concluded  as  follows : — 

"In  saying  this,  I  am  not  for  separating  from  the 
North,  or  dissolving  the  Union.  I  am  willing  to  live 
and  die  for  America  as  she  is  and  has  been;  but 
America  without  the  South,  and  blight,  ruin,  and 
decay  come  upon  us,  and  we  bid  a  long  farewell  to 
the  last  remnant  of  earth's  beauty,  and  the  light  of 
heaven  ! 

"  Who  can  estimate  the  value  of  the  American  Union  ? 
Proud,  happy,  thrice-happy  America!  The  home  of 
the  oppressed,  the  asylum  of  the  emigrant !  where  the 
citizen  of  every  clime,  and  the  child  of  every  creed, 
roam  free  and  untrammelled  as  the  wild  winds  of 
heaven !  Baptized  at  the  fount  of  Liberty  in  fire  and 
blood,  cold  must  be  the  heart  that  thrills  not  at  the 
name  of  the  American  Union ! 

(l  When  the  Old  World,  with  '  all  it?  pomp,  and  pride, 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  27 

and  circumstance/  shall  be  covered  with  oblivion, — 
when  thrones  shall  have  crumbled  and  dy  nasties  shall 
have  been  forgotten, — may  this  glorious  Union,  despite 
the  mad  schemes  of  Southern  fire-eaters  and  Northern 
Abolitionists,  stand  amid  regal  ruin  and  national  deso- 
lation, towering  sublime,  like  the  last  mountain  in  the 
Deluge, — majestic,  immutable,  and  magnificent  I 

"  In  pursuance  of  this,  let  every  conservative  Northern 
man;  who  loves  his  country  and  her  institutions,  shake 
off  the  trammels  of  Northern  fanaticism,  and  swear 
upon  the  altar  of  his  country  that  he  will  stand  by  her 
Constitution  and  laws.  Let  every  Southern  man  shake 
off  the  trammels  of  disunion  and  nullification,  and 
pledge  his  life  and  his  sacred  honor  to  stand  by  the 
Constitution  of  his  country  as  it  is,  the  laws  as  enacted 
by  Congress  and  interpreted  by  the  Supreme  Court. 
Then  we  shall  see  every  heart  a  shield,  and  a  drawn 
sword  in  every  hand,  to  preserve  the  ark  of  our  poli- 
tical safety  !  Then  we  shall  see  reared  a  fabric  upon 
our  national  Constitution,  which  time  cannot  crumble, 
persecution  shake,  fanaticism  disturb,  nor  revolution 
change,  but  which  shall  stand  among  us  like  some  lofty 
and  stupendous  Apennine,  while  the  earth  rocks  at  its 
feet,  and  the  thunder  peals  above  its  head  ! 

"  Contemplating,  our  country  and  her  Northern  and 
Southern  foes,  a  specimen  of  whom  is  here  before  us, 
may  I  not  exclaim,  with  the  poet  ? — 


28  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

" '  Country !  on  thy  sons  depending, 

Strong  in  manhood,  bright  in  bloorti, 
Hast  thou  seen  thy  pride  descending 

Shrouded  to  the  unbounded  tomb  ? 
Bise !  on  eagle  pinions  soaring, 

Rise  !  like  one  of  godlike  birth, 
And,  Jehovah's  aid  imploring, 

Sweep  the  spoiler  from  the  earth.' " 


With  a  view  still  further  to  illustrate  my  views  and 
demonstrate  my  consistency,  I  herewith  submit  a  series 
of  documents  which  appeared  in  the  Knoxville  Whig  at 
the  times  indicated  by  the  dates,  bringing  me  down  to 
the  present  year : — 

Prayer  During  this  Winter, 

Seeing  that  the  Episcopal  Bishops  of  the  Carolina^ 
have  composed  prayers  to  be  used  by  their  clergy 
during  the  sessions  of  their  Legislatures,  we  have 
deemed  it  proper,  sustaining  the  relation  to  the  Method- 
ist Church  we  do  in  East  Tennessee,  to  compose  the 
following  prayer,  and  order  that  it  shall  be  used  this 
winter  by  all  local  preachers  in  all  their  public  minis- 
trations : — 

ALMIGHTY  GOD,  our  heavenly  Father,  in  whose 
hands  are  the  hearts  of  men,  and  the  issues  of  events, 
not  mixed  up  with  Locofocoism,  nor  rendered  offensive 
in  Thy  sight  by  being  identified  with  men  of  corrupt 
minds,  evil  designs,  and  damnable  purposes,  such  as 
are  seeking  to  up-turn  the  best  form  of  government  on 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  29 

earth,  Thou  hast  graciously  promised  to  hear  the 
prayers  of  those  who  in  an  humble  spirit,  and  with  true 
faith, — such  as  no  Secessionist  can  bring  into  exercise, 
— call  upon  Thee.  Be  pleased,  we  beseech  Thee,  favor- 
ably to  look  upon  and  bless  the  Union  men  of  this  Com- 
monwealth, and  sustain  them  in  their  praiseworthy 
efforts  to  perpetuate  this  Government,  and,  under  it,  the 
institutions  of  our  holy  religion.  Possess  their  minds 
with  the  spirit  of  true  patriotism,  enlightened  wisdom, 
and  of  persevering  hostility  towards  those  traitors, 
political  gamblers,  and  selfish  demagogues  w}io  are 
seeking  to  build  up  a  miserable  Southern  Confederacy, 
and  under  it  to  inaugurate  a  new  reading  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  so  as  to  teach  that  the  chief  end  of 
Man  is  Nigger!  In  these  days  of  trouble  and  per- 
plexity, give  the  common  people  grace  to  perceive  the 
right  path,  which,  Thou  knowest,  leads  from  the  camps 
of  Southern  mad-caps  and  [Northern  fanatics,  and  enable 
them  steadfastly  to  walk  therein  ! 

So  strengthen  the  common  masses,  0  Lord,  and  so 
direct  them,  that  they  being  hindered  neither  by  the 
fear  of  fire-eaters,  nor  by  the  love  of  the  corrupt  men 
in  power,  nor  by  bribery,  nor  by  an  overcharge  of 
mean  whiskey,  nor  by  any  other  Democratic  passion, 
but  being  mindful  of  Thy  constant  superintendence,  of, 
the  awful  majesty  of  Thy  righteousness,  of  Thy  hatred 
of  a  corrupt  Democracy  and  its  profligate  leaders,  and 
of  the  strict  account  they  must  hereafter  give  to  Thee, 


30  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

they  may,  in  counsel,  word,  and  deed,  aim  supremely  at 
the  fulfilment  of  their  duty,  which  is  to  talk,  vote, 
and  pray  against  the  wicked  leaders  of  Abolitionism 
and  the  equally  ungodly  advocates  of  Secessionism. 
Grant  that  those  of  Thy  professed  ministers  who  are 
mixed  up  with  modern  Democracy,  and  have  become 
so  hardened  in  sin  as  openly  to  advocate  the  vile  delu- 
sion, may  speedily  abandon  their  -^ministerial  habits, 
or  go  over  to  the  cause  of  the  devil,  that  their  positions 
may  at  least  be  unequivocal,  and  that  they  may  thereby 
advance  the  welfare  of  the  country  !  And  grant  that 
these  fire-eaters  may  soon  run  their  race,  that  the  course 
of  this  world  may  be  so  peaceably  ordered,  by  Thy  super- 
intendence, that  Thy  Church,  and  Thy  whole  people, 
irrespective  of  sects,  may  joyfully  serve  Thee,  in 
all  godly  quietness,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
Amen ! 

Knoxville  Whig,  January,  1860. 

To  Reasonable  Men  in  the  South, 

It  is  ascertained,  beyond  controversy,  that  Mr.  LIN- 
COLN is  President  of  the  United  States.  And  at  a 
moment  when  a  fierce  struggle  is  going  on  between 
passion  and  reason,  we  propose,  in  a  spirit  of  patriotism 
and  compromise,  to  submit  a  few  leading  facts  for  the 
consideration  of  conservative  men  in  the  South.  We 
are  not  so  vain  as  to  suppose  that  what  we  can  say  will 
stay  the  tide  of  passion  in  certain  quarters  in  the  South, 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  31 

and  bring  back  the  impetuous  wanderers  to  consider 
great  facts  and  principles.  Yet  the  task  of  trying 
even  those  of  our  countrymen  ought  not  to  be  shrunk 
from  by  conservative  and  patriotic  men  of  the  South, 
whose  Southern  birth  and  raising,  and  long  services  in 
behalf  of  the  Union  and  the  maintenance  of  the  laws, 
may  be  urged  as  a  reason  why  they  are  at  least  entitled 
to  a  patient  and  respectful  hearing.  It  is  an  ungracious 
and  thankless  task  to  exhort  the  LEADERS  of  the  Breck- 
inridge  party  in  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida,  Vir- 
ginia, Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  to  calmness,  or  to  a 
patriotic  reconsideration  of  the  perilous  position  to 
which,  under  the  apprehensions  engendered  by  the  elec- 
tion of  a  Northern  Sectional  President,  they  are  plung- 
ing under  the  impulses  of  passion. 

The  fact  which  stares  us  in  the  face,  and  which  all 
parties  have  to  meet,  whether  they  support  Bell, 
Douglas,  or  Breckinridge,  is  Mr.  Lincoln's  election. 
Mr.  Lincoln  himself  is  no  doubt  a  patriotic  man,  and 
a  sincere  lover  of  his  country.  He  is  to-day,  what  he 
has  always  been,  an  OLD  CLAY  WHIG,  differing  in  no 
respect — not  even  upon  the  subject  of  Slavery — from 
the  Sage  of  Ashland.  The  great  objection  with  us  to 
his  election  is  the  sectional  idea  upon  which  he  was 
run,  the  character  of  the  partisans  who  supported  him 
and  will,  it  is  to  be  feared,  to  some  extent  control  his 
administration.  But  Lincoln  is  chosen  President,  and, 
whether  with  or  without  the  consent  and  participation 


32  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

of  the  South,  will  be,  and  ought  to  be,  inaugurated  on 
the  4th  of  March,  1861.  True,  as  the  lights  before  us 
indicate,  we  should  say  that  Lincoln  has  not  received 
more  than  one-third  to  two-fifths  of  the  aggregate  vote 
of  the  nation.  Neither  did  Buchanan ;  and  yet  he,  like 
Lincoln,  has  been  elected  by  divisions  among  his  oppo- 
nents. Lincoln,  then,  has  been  chosen  legally  and 
constitutionally,  without  either  fraud  or  violence, 
simply  by  the  suffrages  of  an  enormous  majority  of  the 
people  of  the  North,  who  have  actually  given  him  more 
Electoral  votes  than  Buchanan  received,  who  was  per- 
mitted quietly  to  take  his  seat.  Against  the  manner 
of  his  election  nothing  can  be  urged.  It  is  true,  as  we 
have  before  stated,  he  was  a  sectional  candidate ;  and 
it  is  equally  true  that,  with  trifling  exceptions  in  Mary- 
±and,  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri,  he  received 
no  Southern  votes.  But  do  the  Constitution  or  the 
laws  of  our  country  require  a  man  to  receive  Southern 
votes  before  he  can  be  inaugurated  President?  Do 
they  compel  a  candidate  to  receive  votes  in  every  State 
before  he  shall  be  declared  our  Chief  Magistrate? 
Certainly  not.  Then  there  is  no  just  ground  for  resist- 
ance or  revolutionary  movement  on  that  score. 

But  the  argument  of  Secessionists  is,  that  the  admi- 
nistration of  a  Black  Eepublican  President  must  neces- 
sarily be  of  an  aggressive  character  towards  the  South, 
And  that  the  Slave  States  should  forestall  such  iniqui- 
tous policy  by  withdrawing  from  the  Union.  Nay, 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  33 

the  election  of  a  man  to  the  Presidency  by  a  party 
known  to  be  opposed  to  slavery,  and  who  heretofore 
have  never  been  successful  in  such  a  contest,  is  alleged 
to  be  a  just  cause  for  secession.  This  view  of  the  sub- 
ject is  so  fallacious,  and  so  extremely  shallow,  that  it 
ought  not  to  mislead  any  one.  The  argument  is,  that 
the  South  is  exposed  to  all  the  wiles  and  infamy  of  an 
Abolition  Government, — an  argument  that  we  cannot 
accept  as  legitimate  in  fact  or  in  reason.  Did  Lincoln 
receive  the  suffrages  of  the  North  under  a  pledge  that, 
if  elected,  he  would  disregard  his  oath  of  office,  violate 
the  Constitution,  and  subvert  the  Union  ?  Certainly 
not ;  for  had  he  given  that  pledge,  the  day  his  election 
was  announced,  the  entire  South  would  have  been 
united  in  carrying  out  a  most  thorough  and  determined 
revolution,  and  thousands  of  true  men  at  the  North 
would  have  joined  us.  But,  now  that  Lincoln  is  elected, 
will  he  execute  the  purposes  of  Abolitionism  ?  This  he 
cannot  do  under  the  solemn  oath  to  be  administered  at 
his  inauguration.  And  who  will  say  that  he  intends 
taking  that  oath  with  treason  in  his  heart  and  perjury 
on  his  tongue  ?  We  have  no  right  to  judge  of  Lincoln 
by  any  thing  but  his  acts,  and  these  can  only  be  appre- 
ciated after  his  inauguration.  He  knows  very  well 
that  he  cannot  violate  the  Constitution  in  any  serious 
particular,  without  rendering  the  dissolution  of  tho 
Union  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  South,  and  thereby 
involving  the  North  in  alarming  troubles  and  certain 


34  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

ruin.  The  Constitution  was  planned  by  its  sagacious 
and  patriotic  authors  to  protect  the  South  in  just  such 
an  emergency  as  this.  If,  then,  Lincoln  is  not  a  patriot 
at  heart, — and  we  assume  no  such  thing, — the  Consti- 
tution and  his  oath  will  make  him  administer  the 
Government  patriotically. 

But  the  attempt  to  break  up  the  Union,  before 
awaiting  a  single  overt  act,  or  even  the  manifestation 
of  the  purpose  of  the  President  elect,  would  be  wicked, 
treacherous,  unjustifiable,  unprecedented,  and  without 
the  shadow  of  an  excuse.  And  then,  again,  disunion  is 
not  a  remedy  for  any  evil  in  the  Government,  real  or 
imaginary ;  and  it  is  an  uncertain  and  a  perilous  remedy, 
to  be  resorted  to  only  in  the  last  extremity,  and  as  a 
refuge  from  wrongs  more  intolerable  than  the  desperate 
remedy  by  which  they  are  sought  to  be  relieved.  What 
the  people  of  the  Southern  States  should  do  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  single  word :  PAUSE  !  It  will  be  time 
enough  to  fight  Lincoln  with  powder  and  sword — to 
resist  him  with  regiments  of  "  minute-men" — when  we 
find  that  constitutional  resistance  fails,  or  that  he 
and  his  party  are  bent  on  our  humiliation  and  destruc- 
tion. Let  every  man  in  every  Southern  State  stand 
up  for  the  Union  as  long  as  it  is  possible  to  prevent  it. 
Individually,  we  are  willing  to  go  with  the  South,  even 
unto  death,  but  we  feel  bound  to  aid  in  making  the 
South  herself  go  right!  Let  all  patriots,  irrespective 
of  parties,  choose  their  position;  let  them  resolve  to 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  35 

stand  by  the  Union  as  long  as  the  Federal  Government 
respects  the  rights  of  the  people  of  the  South.  The 
Constitutional  Union  men  of  the  South  are  largely  in 
the  majority,  and  they  are  pledged  to  the  support  of 
the  rights  and  honor  of  the  South  as  well  as  of  the 
Union,  and  the  maintenance  of  the  spirit  and  form  of 
our  Government.  They  cannot  do  less;  and  they  ask 
their  extreme  brethren  to  meet  them  upon  a  common 
basis  and  labor  for  the  accomplishment  of  a  common  end. 
They  ask  it  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  toleration,  and  they 
concede  to  thousands  of  others,  who  are  shaping  a 
different  course,  the  same  integrity  of  purpose,  patriot- 
ism, and  honor  which  they  claim  for  themselves.  Let 
the  entire  South  unite  with  the  thousands  of  conserva- 
tive men  North,  bury  their  feuds,  make  common  cause, 
and  in  1864  the  National  Constitutional  men  of  the 
country,  North,  South,  East,  and  West,  will  overthrow 
the  Sectionalists,  and  restore  the  Government  to  a 
better  condition  than  it  has  been  in  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  The  night  is  dark,  we  confess,  and  troubled, 
but  there  are  gleams  of  light  along  the  line  of  the 
horizon.  Lincoln  is  President;  but  he  is  nothing  more. 
We  trust  that  he  contemplates  no  mischief,  but,  if  he 
does,  he  can  do  none.  The  Senate,  the  House  of  Eepre- 
sentatives,  and  the  Supreme  Court  will  hold  him  in 
check,  and  stand  by  the  Constitution  and  the  rights  of 
all  sections.  Here,  then,  is  our  hope,  and  here  is  the 
platform  that  all  conservative  men  should  occupy,  and 


36  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

time  and  reflection  will,  anon,  inspire  a  sober  second 
thought  in  quarters  where  at  this  moment  the  blind 
impulses  of  passion  bear  sway.  The  wise,  the  safe, 
and  the  only  honorable  course  to  pursue  is  pointed  out 
in.  the  following  advice  by  the  immortal  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  American  Independence.  Here  are  his 
memorable  words : — 

"We  must  have  patience  and  long  endurance,  then, 
with  our  brethren  while  under  delusion.  Give  them 
time  for  reflection  and  experience  of  consequences; 
keep  ourselves  in  a  situation  to  profit  by  the  chapter 
of  accidents,  and  separate  from  our  companions  only 
when  the  sole  alternatives  left  are  the  dissolution  of  our 
Union  with  them,  or  submission  to  a  Government  with- 
out limitation  of  powers." 

There  is  one  other  consideration  we  wish  to  lay 
before  the  calm  and  considerate  men  of  the  South,  and 
that  is  the  division  of  power  between  the  North  and 
South  since  the  organization  of  the  Government.  The 
South  has  held  the  Presidency  as  follows : — 

Under 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,  a  Virginian 8  years. 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  "         8  " 

JAMES  MADISON,  "         8  " 

JAMES  MONROE,  "         8  " 

JOHN  TYLER,  "         4  " 

ANDREW  JACKSON,  a  Tennesseean  v 8  " 

JAMES  K.  POLK,  "         4  " 


Total  by  the  South 48  years. 


'AMONG  THE  REBELS.  37 

The  North  has  held  the  Presidency  as  follows,  to  wit : 
Under 

JOHN  ADAMS,  of  Massachusetts 4  years. 

JOHN  Q.  ADAMS,  " 4     " 

M ARTIN  VAN  BUREN,  New  York 4     " 

MlLLARD  FlLLMORE,      "          "     4        " 

FRANKLIN  PIERG  u,  New  Hampshire 4     " 

JAMES  BUCHANAN,  Pennsylvania 4      " 

Total  by  the  North 24  years.    • 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  South,  though  always  in  the 
minority,  from  the  origin  of  the  Government  down  to 
the  4th  of  March,  1861,  has  held  the  Presidency  forty- 
eight  years  out  of  seventy-two.  The  North,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  held  it  twenty-four  years, — only  one- 
third  of  the  time !  Let  us  do  as  we  would  be  done  by. 
True,  it  will  be  said  that  the  South  never  furnished  a 
sectional,  but  always  a  national,  President.  Those  now 
complaining  and  threatening  to  go  out  of  the  Union 
have  presented  a  sectional  man,  as  much  so  as  Lincoln 
is ;  and  this  cannot  be  denied ! 

Knoxville  Whig,  Nov.  17,  1860. 

The  Eight  of  Secession, 
The  following  correspondence  will  explain  itself: — 

GREENWOOD,  S.  C.,  Nov.  23, 1860. 

\V.  G.  BROWNLOW: — 

SIR  : — You  will  do  me  a  favor  by  sending  my  account 
for  the  Knoxville  Whig,  and  stop  my  paper.  Secession 
now  and  forever!  So  say  the  Methodists  of  South 
Carolina.  Yours,  &c., 

E.  H..  APPLETON. 


38  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

KNOXVILLE,  Nov.  29,  1880. 

MR.  APPLETON  : — 

Your  note,  calling  for  account  and  ordering  a  dis- 
continuance, is  before  me.  You  are  not  indebted  to 
me  for  subscription,  but,  on  the  contrary,  there  are 
fifteen  weeks  of  subscription  due  you.  I  take  no 
offence  whatever  at  your  discontinuance,  as  that  is 
every  man's  right  in  this  free  country.  But,  before 
parting  with  you,  you  must  allow  me  to  give  you  my 
views  upon  your  favorite  doctrine  of  "  Secession."  I 
am  equally  opposed  to  the  wicked  spirit  of  Sectionalism 
at  the  North  and  of  Secession  at  the  South.  Your 
motto  is,  "  Secession  now  and  forever!"  I  offset  this 
with  the  following  patriotic  sentiments  from  General 
JACKSON'S  Message  of  1833 : — 

"THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  THE  LAW  is  SUPREME, 
AND  THE  UNION  is  INDISSOLUBLE." 

Sir,  the  political  journals,  North  and  South,  are  dis- 
cussing the  right  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union. 
For  my  part,  I  deny  the  right  of  secession  altogether, 
though  I  admit  the  right  of  revolution  when  circum- 
stances justify  it.  It  must  be  an  extreme  case  of  op- 
pression on  the  part  of  Government,  and  of  continued 
oppression,  that  will  justify  revolution.  Such  a  case 
was  presented  when  the  American  Colonies  revolted; 
and  in  that  case  revolution  was  called  for  and  was 
successful. 

But  the  idea  of  one  of  these  States  at  its  pleasure 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  39 

claiming  and  exercising  the  right  to  secede  from  this 
Union,  is  a  more  monstrous  and  absurd  doctrine  than 
has  ever  been  put  forth  in  any  republic.  If  the  doc- 
trine be  true  that  the  right  exists,  our  Government  is 
a  mere  rope  of  sand.  Concede  the  truth  of  this  dogma, 
and  Cuba,  after  we  may  have  paid  two  hundred  mil- 
lions for  her  purchase  to  Old  Spain,  may  take  offence, 
and,  as  a  State,  may  at  once  secede,  and  leave  tho 
United  States  Treasury  to  whistle!  We  now  have  a 
case  in  point.  T^.xas  speaks  of  going  out  of  the  Union 
with  Carolina,  and  I  presume  will  do  so.  Less  than 
twenty  years  ago,  she  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
upon  her  own  solicitation,  our  Government  paying 
millions  to  discharge  her  debts,  and  other  millions  to 
go  into  her  coffers.  Is  she  now  at  liberty  to  secede 
with,  all  this  booty,  and  array  herself  against  this 
Government  in  all  time  to  come  ?  Certainly  not.  For, 
if  she  is,  Louisiana,  and  all  the  States  carved  out  of 
that  purchase,  for  which  we  paid  FIFTEEN  MILLIONS, 
may  do  likewise,  and  carry  with  them  the  mouth-  of 
the  Mississippi  Kiver,  transferring  it  to  any  European 
Power. 

So,  too,  States  in  which  large  amounts  of  Government 
property  may  be  situated  may  at  any  time  secede  with 
that  property, — just  as  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Florida, 
and  Alabama,  with  their  Government  fortifications,  ar- 
senals, custom-houses,  navy-yards,  and  other  property, 
strung  along  the  coasts  from  Charleston  to  Mobile,  may 


40  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

at  any  time  do.  Construct  a  Pacific  Eailroad  at  an  ex- 
pense of  millions  paid  from  the  common  treasure,  and  the 
two  or  three  States  through  which  it  passes,  and  which  it 
so  enriches,  may  take  offence  at  something  Maine  and 
New  Hampshire  are  doing,  and  decamp  with  the  whole 
road,  its  stationary,  running  stock,  and  guarantees,  taking 
all  the  property  with  them,  and  forming  an  alliance  with 
some  Government  hostile  to  the  very  nation  which  built 
the  road.  Now,  are  Maryland,  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Ken- 
tucky, and  other  States  remaining  loyal  to  the  Union, 
to  look  quietly  on,  and  even  approve  the  exodus  of 
those  which  have  been  thus  enriched  at  their  expense, 
and  recognize  the  right  of  each  of  them  to  secede  and 
take  the  common  property  of  all  the  remaining  States 
with  them  ?  I  say  most  emphatically  not ! 

This  question  of  the  right  of  secession  is  upon  us, 
and  we  have  to  look  it  in  the  face,  and  meet  it  as  it 
becomes  men.  Therefore  let  us  reason  together  upon 
the  subject,  divesting  ourselves  of  passion  and  prejudice. 
The  right  of  secession,  if  it  exist  at  all,  is  an  absolute 
one,  and  a  State  has  as  much  right  to  exercise  it  at 
one  time  as  another.  The  Secessionists  will  concede 
the  correctness  of  this  position.  If  she  may  secede  at 
will,  she  may  do  so  in  anticipation  of  a  bloody  and 
protracted  war  with  a  foreign  Power,  so  as  to  avoid 
any  draft  upon  her  for  men  or  money.  If  she  can 
secede  when  she  chooses,  she  owes  no  allegiance  to  the 
Government  one  hour  after  she  decides  to  secede,  but 


AMONG-  THE   EEBELS.  41 

will  then  be  just  as  independent  of  the  Government  as 
she  is  of  France  or  England.  In  the  midst  of  a  violent 
and  protracted  foreign  war,  then,  it  will  be  the  right 
of  any  one  of  the  States  of  this  Union,  not  only  to 
desert  our  own  Government,  but  at  the  same  time  to 
ally  herself  to  the  enemy  the  remaining  States  are 
fighting!  Our  Government,  under  such  principles,  if 
recognized,  could  not  exist  twenty-four  hours.  Other 
nations,  and  our  own  citizens,  could  have  no  faith  in 
the  permanence  of  such  a  Government.  It  would  lack 
the  vital  principle  of  existence,  because  it  would  lack 
every  tiling  like  credit.  No  capitalist  with  a  thimble- 
ful of  sense  would  lend  it  a  dollar;  for  no  man  could 
feel  assured  that  such  a  Government  would  last  long 
enough  to  pay  a  six  months'  loan,  to  say  nothing  of 
loans  for  a  term  of  years.  All  who  deal  with  Govern- 
ments repose  upon  their  public  faith;  and  where  this  is 
destroyed  they  feel  that  all  is  lacking.  Business  must 
be  destroyed;  for  men  of  sense  and  means  would  not 
embark  either  their  industry  or  capital,  unless  it  were 
under  the  shelter  of  laws  and  institutions  not  liable  to 
change.  In  support  of  this,  I  need  only  call  attention 
to  the  great  fall  in  the  price  of  State  bonds,  negroes, 
and  all  other  property  in  the  South,  in  anticipation  of 
the  rupture  with  which  we  are  threatened.  Things 
are  bad  enough  with  us  in  the  South,  and  they  are 
even  worse  at  the  North,  because  of  what  seems  to  be 
inevitable.  And  yet  they  are  to  grow  worse  each  day 

4* 


42  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPEKIENCES 

we  live  in  this  state  of  uncertainty.  And  your  good 
State  of  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Appleton,  is  more  to 
blame  for  these  evils  which  affect  the  country  than  any 
one  State  in  the  Union. 

I  have,  myself,  no  sympathy  or  respect  for  the  anti- 
slavery  men  of  the  North,  who  are  agitating  this 
question,  and  enacting  their  "  Personal  Liberty  Laws," 
with  a  view  to  defeat  the  operations  of  the  "  Fugitive 
Slave  Law."  I  am  a  native  of  Virginia,  as  also  were 
my  parents  before  me,  but  for  thirty  years  I  have  been 
a  citizen  of  Tennessee,  and  I  expect  to  end  my  clays 
within  her  borders.  My  wife  and  children  are  natives 
of  Tennessee,  and  all  I  have  is  here.  I  am  a  Union 
man  in  the  fullest  acceptation  of  that  term,  and  I  shall 
stand  by  the  ship  of  state,  as  long  as  the  storm  is 
howling  overhead,  and  the  breakers  are  roaring  on 
the  lee-shore,  though  we  have  neither  sun,  moon,  nor 
stars  to  light  the  way !  And  pardon  me,  sir,  when  I 
ask  you,  who  but  cowards  would  seek  to  desert  the  ship  ? 
Who  but  madmen  would  seek  for  safety  out  of  it? 
"Who  but  crazy  mutineers  would  refuse  to  come  to  the 
rescue  of  the  ship,  passengers,  and  crew  ?  South  Caro- 
lina, at  this  trying  moment,  refuses  to  do  duty.  The 
storm  affrights  her.  Her  Senators  and  Kepresentatives 
in  Congress  resign  their  seats,  instead  of  remaining  at 
their  posts,  and  fighting  the  battle  on  the  floor  of  Con- 
gress, where  it  ought  to  be  fought  and  must  be  lost  or 
won.  Their  hearts  fail  before  the  Northern  Abolition 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  43 

Simoon,  and  seeing  only  death,  as  they  apprehend, 
staring  them  in  the  face,  if  they  abide  on  board,  they 
take  to  the  boats,  abandon  the  vessel  in  which  we  have 
all  sailed  together,  through  many  a  gale,  these  eighty 
years  past,  and  intend,  with  poles  and  paddles,  to  scuttle 
through  their  cypress-swamps ! 

I  admit  the  danger  that  menaces  you  all  on  board; 
but  do  you  not  multiply  the  peril  tenfold  by  desertion  ? 
An  overwhelming  majority  of  the  people  of  the  Southern 
States  have  decided  at  the  ballot-box  in  favor  of  the 
Union,  voting  for  BELL  and  DOUGLAS.  I  regard  the 
Abolitionists  as  the  " mutineers;"  and  I  ask  you,  I  ask 
all  South  Carolina,  is  it  manly,  is  it  magnanimous,  is 
it  just,  to  throw  yourselves  into  the  sea,  and  leave 
these  border  States  to  destruction?  No,  Mr.  Appleton, 
it  is  not  magnanimous,  it  is  not  just !  I  tell  you,  and 
your  Methodist  brethren,  in  the  language  of  the  good 
Book  they  so  much  revere,  that  "  Except  ye  abide  in 
the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved." 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  say  that  the  Methodists  of 
South  Carolina  are  now  and  forever  the  advocates  of 
Secession !  To  appeal  to  them  in  behalf  of  the  Union, 
is  but  beating  the  air,  and  wasting  one's  breath ;  but  I 
say  to  them,  through  you,  that  I  will  stand  to  the  Stars 
and  Stripes — I  shall  cling  to  the  Union !  I  say  to 
them,  however,  as  a  heroic  Christian  apostle  said  to  an 
equally  panic-stricken  generation  of  bolters,  "  Except 
ye  abide  in  the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved."  You  may 


4A  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

leave  the  vessel, — you  may  go  out  in  tne  rickety  boats 
of  your  little  State,  and  hoist  your  miserable  cabbage- 
leaf  of  a  Palmetto  flag ;  but,  depend  upon  it,  men  and 
brethren,  you  will  be  dashed  to  pieces  on  the  rocks ! 

But  the  clergy, — the  ministers  of  God,  the  followers 
on  earth  of  the  Prince  of  Peace, — at  this  threatening 
crisis,  are  going  likewise!  I  know  there  are  among 
that  class  of  citizens,  in  South  Carolina,  some  of  the 
best  men,  as  well  as  the  most  fearless  and  self-sacri- 
ficing men,  of  which  the  American  people  can  boast. 
Why,  oh,  why  are  these  men  on  the  side  of  civil  war, 
bloodshed,  and  revolution?  They  have  offered  up 
prayers  and  supplication,  and  made  appeals  to  Heaven, 
but,  alas  !  they  have  been — not  for  the  preservation  but 
for  the  destruction  of  the  Union.  I  hear  of  no  Paul 
among  them,  seeking  to  calm  the  minds  of  his  com- 
panions, and  to  declare  to  them,  "  Except  ye  abide  in 
the  ship,  ye  cannot  be  saved."  The  venerable  Dr. 
PIERCE,  of  Georgia,  is  an  exception  to  this  rule,  and 
has  spoken  out  like  an  American  citizen  and  a  Christian 
philosopher.  To  my  mind  it  is  clear  that  the  clergy  of 
South  Carolina  are  wanting  in  courage  to  do  what 
their  "  consciences  dictate  to  be  done."  If  they  pos- 
sessed the  courage  of  their  Master,  they  would  from  a 
Christian  stand-point  speak  out  in  thunder  tones  ! 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  walked  the  earth  thirty  odd  years,  in 
the  midst  of  millions  of  Roman  Empire  slaves,  and  dared 
to  counsel  them  against  rebellion  and  insurrection,  and 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  45 

to  exhort  them  to  be  obedient  to  their  masters.  Here 
was  a  courage  worthy  of  God !  "Would  that  my  South 
Carolina  Methodist  brethren  would  endeavor,  humbly 
and  courageously,  to  follow  His  example ! 

I  believe  the  Union  is  in  danger,  and  in  regard  to 
the  consequences  of  its  dissolution  I  shall  not  lengthen 
out  this  epistle  in  an  attempt  to  portray  the  conse- 
quences. What  I  have  to  say  to  your  ministers  and 
church-going  people  is,  that  the  importance  of  the 
times  demands  the  grave  and  serious  reflection  and 
prayerful  deliberation  of  every  individual  and  State, 
before  they  proceed  to  take  any  action.  One  false 
step,  such  as  contemplated  by  South  Carolina,  may 
plunge  the  people  of  the  United  States  into  unutterable 
woe !  We  now  need  the  cool  deliberation,  the  conser- 
vatism, and  the  wisdom  of  the  nation,  to  "pour  oil 
upon  the  troubled  waters," — to  calm  the  storm  now 
raging  in  the  political  elements,  and  to  save  this  Union. 
And  to  no  class  of  men  living  have  we  greater  cause 
to  look  for  help  in  this  good  work,  than  to  the  minis- 
ters and  members  of  the  Methodist  Church,  whose 
Discipline  and  Constitution,  as  well  as  their  Bible, 
require  loyalty  to  the  civil  Government,  obedience  to 
rulers,  and  a  devotion  to  a  country  that  forbids  their 
assenting  to  its  overthrow,  directly  or  indirectly  !  The 
South  should  resist  unlawful  aggressions,  but  she  should 
do  it  in  the  Union,  under  the  Constitution,  and  with 
a  scrupulous  regard  to  the  forms  of  law.  Secession  is 


46  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPEKIENCES 

no  remedy  for  any  evils  in  our  Government,  real  or 
imaginary,  past,  present,  or  to  come. 

I  will  go  further,  if  you  please,  and  affirm  that  the 
Constitution  has,  in  the  clearest  terms,  recognized  the 
right  of  property  in  slaves.  That  sacred  instrument 
prohibits  any  State  into^vhich  a  slave  may  have  fled, 
from  passing  any  law  to  discharge  him  from  bondage, 
and  declares  that  he  shall  be  surrendered  to  his  lawful 
owner  by  the  authorities  of  any  State  within  whose 
limits  he  may  be  found.  More  than  this,  sir,  the  Con- 
stitution makes  the  existence  of  slavery  our  foundation 
of  political  power,  by  giving  to  the  Slave  States  repre- 
sentatives in  Congress  not  only  in  proportion  to  the 
whole  number  of  free  negroes,  but  also  in  proportion  to 
the  three-fifths  of  the  number  of  slaves.  The  Northern 
States,  by  their  "  Personal  Liberty  Laws,"  have  placed 
themselves  in  a  state  of  revolution,  and  unless  they 
repeal  these  laws,  the  revolution — a  thing  that  never 
goes  backward — must  go  on,  until  these  rebellious 
States  are  declared  out  of  the  Union,  and  the  truly 
conservative  States  take  the  Union  in  charge ! 

I  have,  my  dear  sir,  denned  my  position,  and  in  such 
terms  as  not  to  be  misunderstood.  I  have  already 
extended  my  remarks  beyond  what  I  intended  in  the 
outset.  I  will  therefore  close  with  brief  extracts  from 
the  pens  of  three  distinguished  men,  and  I  ask  your 
attention  to  what  they  have  said.  The  two  first 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  47 

assisted  in  framing  the  Constitution.     Mr.  JEFFERSON 
remarked,  in  a  letter  to  John  Taylor,  dated  June  1, 1798, 

"If  on  the  temporary  superiority  of  the  one  party 
the  other  is  to  resort  to  a  scission  of  the  Union,  no 
Federal  Government  can  ever  exist. 

"  Who  can  say  what  would  be  the  evils  of  a  scission, 
and  when  and  where  they  would  end?  Better  keep 
together  as  we  are ;  haul  off  from  Europe  as  soon  as  we 
can,  and  from  attachments  to  all  portions ;  and,  if  they 
show  their  power*  just  sufficiently  to  hoop  us  together, 
it  will  be  the  happiest  situation  in  which  we  can  exist. 
If  the  game  were  sometimes  against  us  at  home,  we 
must  have  patience  till  luck  turns,  and  then  we  shall  have 
opportunity  to  win  back  the  principles  we  have  lost." 

Mr.  MADISON,  in  a  paper  he  drew  up  a  short  time 
before  his  death,  gives  us  this  advice  : — 

"  The  advice  nearest  my  heart  and  deepest  in  my 
conviction  is,  that  the  Union  of  the  States  be  cherished 
and  perpetuated.  Let  the  open  enemy  to  it  be  regarded 
as  a  Pandora  with  her  box  opened,  and  the  disguised 
one  as  the  serpent  creeping  with  his  deadly  wiles  into 
Paradise." 

Gen.  JACKSON,  in  his  message  to  Congress,  January 
7,  1833,  thus  disposes  of  the  question  of  Secession  : — 

"  The  right  of  the  people  of  a  single  State  to  absolve 
themselves-  at  will,  and  without  the  consent  of  the 
other  States,  from  their  most  solemn  obligations,  and 
hazard  the  liberties  and  happiness  of  the  millions 
composing  this  Union,  cannot  be  acknowledged.  Such 
authority  is  believed  utterly  repugnant  both  to  the 
principles  upon  which  the  General  Government  is  con- 
stituted, and  to  the  objects  which  it  was  expressly 
formed  to  attain." 


18  BROWLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

To  these  sentiments  I  subscribe  as  heartily  and  as 
unswervingly  as  I  do  to  those  I  have  preceded  them 
with.  Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  Gr.  BROWNLOW. 

Knoxville  Whig,  December  8,  1860. 

To  the  People  of  East  Tennessee, 

The  Governor  has  issued  a  call  for  the  meeting  of 
the  Legislature  on  Monday,  the  7th  of  January,  and 
that  body  will  call  a  Convention  of  the  State,  to  act 
upon  the  great  and  only  issue  of  the  day, — the  breaking 
up  of  this  Union  by  the  secession  of  certain  States 
from  the  Confederacy.  We  shall  then  be  called  upon 
to  elect  men  from  all  of  our  Legislative  districts, 
Kepresentative  and  Senatorial,  to  represent  us  in  that 
Convention ;  and  this  election  will  be  upon  us  in  a  very 
short  time,  say  two  or  three  months.  The  single  issue 
will  then  be,  secession  or  no  secession;  or,  in  other 
words,  Shall  Tennessee  follow  the  Cotton  States  out  of 
the  Union,  or  remain  in  the  Union,  true  to  the  Con- 
stitution and  the  laws  ?  Let  those  who  dare  to  favor 
disunion  become  candidates,  and  show  their  hands. 
They  will  not  be  allowed  to  dodge  the  issue:  they 
must  declare  either  for  or  against  secession.  The 
people  will  force  every  man  to  define  his  position. 
We  desire  to  see  a  candidate  in  every  county  on  each 
side  of  the  question,  so  as  fully  to  test  it ;  and  we  hope 
to  see  the  ablest  men  in  the  State  in  the  field,  on  both 


AMONG   THE   KELELS.  49 

tickets.  It  will  not  be  Whig  and  Democrat,  Bell  and 
Breckinridge,  or  Douglas,  but  Union  or  Disunion. 

The  Cotton  States  have  spurned  the  offer  of  certain 
border  States  to  meet  them  in  a  friendly  conference, — 
declare  they  are  going  rashly  and  headlong  out  of  the 
Union,  and  that  these  border  States  may  either  follow 
them  or  remain  where  they  are.  They  allege  our 
unity  of  interests,  but  refuse  us  harmony  of  action. 
Five  refractory  States  claim  the  right  to  dictate  to  TEN 
conservative,  States,  and  to  involve  them  in  all  the 
horrors  of  civil  war,  extending  along  a  border  of  fifteen 
hundred  miles ;  but  they  indignantly  refuse  to  confer 
with  these  TEN  States.  If  these  border  States  were 
their  enemies,  then  there  would  be  some  propriety  in 
refusing  their  counsels.  The  border  States  have  been 
their  friends,  through  evil  and  good  report ;  they  have 
been  their  companions  in  arms,  and  side  by  side 
they  have  fought  many  a  battle  and  triumphed  over 
the  British  and  Indians.  But  now,  in  matters  in 
which  we  are  as  deeply  interested  as  they  ape,  they 
give  us  the  cold  shoulder,  and  refuse  to  meet  us  in 
counsel,  to  see  if  some  course  of  procedure  cannot  be 
agreed  upon  by  which  all  who  are  identified  in  interest 
should  unite  forces  against  our  enemies. 

We  are,  in  fact,  "in  the  midst  of  a  revolution," — 
a  phrase  whose  dreadful  meaning,  as  interpreted  in 
the  history  of  nations,  none  of  us  now  realize  the  force 
of.  The  honest  yeomanry  of  these  border  States, 


50  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

whose  families  live  by  their  hard  licks,  four-fifths  of 
whom  own  no  negroes  and  never  expect  to  own  any, 
are  to  be  drafted, — forced  to  leave  their  wives  and 
children  to  toil  and  suffer,  while  they  fight  for  the 
purse-proud  aristocrats  of  the  Cotton  States,  whose 
pecuniary  abilities  will  enable  them  to  hire  substitutes ! 
Eevolution,  or  civil  war,  is  no  holiday  affair;  and 
those  who  expect  to  carry  it  on  by  the  bright  and 
shining  light  of  pleasure  and  prosperity  are  to  expe- 
rience the. saddest  of  disappointments. 

Let  us  be  calm,  fellow-countrymen  of  the  border 
States,  and  weigh  well  every  step  we  take  towards 
meeting  these  avowed  enemies  of  the  Union  in  counsel. 
That  great  teacher— history — shows  a  multitude  of 
cases  in  which  whole  communities,  and  sometimes 
nations,  have  been  led  into  disastrous  and  wholesale 
calamities,  under  excitements  not  so  terrific  as  that 
which  now  agitates  these  States.  In  proof  of  this,  we 
could  refer  to  the  South-Carolina-like  insanity  which 
seized  upon  whole  nations  of  Europe,  and  led  them  to 
inhospitable  graves  on  the  bloody  fields  of  battle.  The 
most  impressive  and  notable  of  these  is  furnished  by 
the  terrific  French  Revolution,  which  began  with  a 
Convention,  culminated  in  the  decapitation  of  a  king, 
and  ended  in  the  worst  form  of  a  military  despotism. 
Tennesseans!  let  us  not  disregard  these  stern  teachings 
of  history.  Human  nature  and  man  are  essentially 
the  same  in  all  ages.  The  demagogues  who  denied  to 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  51 

us  before  the  late  Presidential  election  that  they  were 
at  all  favorable  to  Secession,  now  make  light  of,  and 
affect  to  despise,  the  dangers  which  are  only  a  few  brief 
months  ahead  of  us.  We  are  urged  to  go  into  a 
Southern  Confederacy  at  once ;  and  in  a  few  months 
thereafter  we  shall  be  drafted  as  soldiers,  and  forced 
to  abandon  our  peaceful  homes,  never  to  see  them  more, 
to  perish  by  exposure,  or  hunger,  or  disease,  on  long 
and  dreary  marches,  or  to  fall  by  the  hands  of  our 
countrymen,  in  a  war  that  never  ought  to  have  been 
waged.  This  dreadful  state  of  things  is  just  before  us 
in  the  portentous  future,  and  we  are  rushing  into  the 
jaws  of  dealA,  led^  on  .by  the  ignis-fatuus  of  the  wild 
and  visionary  theorists  of  the  South,  who  believe  that 
the  chief  end  of  man  is  nigger  ! 

But  it  is  said  that  five  or  six  Cotton  States  will  go 
out  of  the  Union,  and  we  of  the  border  States  will  be 
forced  to  follow.  We  say,  Let  them  go,  if  they  are  bent 
upon  self-destruction,  but  let  us,  Tennesseeans,  remain 
in  the  Union,  whose  Constitution  and  laws  provide 
adequate  protection  to  the  rights  of  all  the  States  of  the 
Confederacy ;  and  let  us  look  to  that  instrument  for 
defence  within  the  Union,  warned  by  the  experience  of 
the  past,  the  dangers  of  the  present,  and  the  hopes  of 
the  future.  It  is  worse  than  idle — it  is  fool-hardy — 
to  discuss  the  question  of  the  relative  merits  of  the 
two  Governments,  the  new  and  the  old.  The  spirit 
manifested  by  the  Disunionists  of  the  South  shows 


52  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

most  clearly  that  they  are  not  the  men  to  make  laws 
for  our  Government,  or  to  frame  a  Government  for  con- 
servative Union  men  to  live  under.  "We  may  as  well 
live  under  the  government  of  the  William  L.  Garrisons 
of  the  North,  as  the  William  L.  Yanceys  of  the  South. 
In  case  of  disruption,  the  formation  of  a  Southern  Con- 
federacy, by  direct  taxation,  by  means  of  military 
encampments,  and  by  calling  off  the  yeomanry  of  the 
coup-try  from  agricultural  pursuits,  will  involve  us  all 
in  one  common  ruin,  in  financial  embarrassments, 
and  in  the  overthrow  of  the  best  Government  the 
world  ever  knew.  One  can  but  involuntarily  turn 
even  from  the  contemplation  of  this  state  of  things. 
Shall  we  be  precipitated  into  this  dreadful  state  of 
things  by  a  set  of  men  who  denied  to  us,  but  three 
months  ago,  that  they  favored  Disunion,  because  they 
then  wanted  our  votes?  If  time  were  given  to  the 
North,  she  would  do  the  South  justice:  therefore  let 
these  border  States  be  guided  by  moderation.  Let  us, 
Tennesseeans,  stand  by  the  Union ;  let  us  hope  on,  and 
when  hope  is  gone — so  far  as  we  are  concerned — life 
will  have  lost  its  value  for  us ! 

Knoxville  Whig,  Dec.  22,  I860. 

Disunion  Party  Eevived. 

The  old  Nullifiers  of  the  days  of  JACKSON  have 
revived  under  the  lead  of  BRECKINRIDGE,  and  in  the 
name  of  National  Democracy.  They  were  for  Dis- 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  53 

union,  Secession,  and  Nullification,  during  the  reign  of 
JACKSON  ;  but  his  devotion  to  the  Union,  his  iron 
will  and  towering  popularity,  enabled  him  to  crush 
them  out. 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN  was  a  man  of  iron  will,  scarcely 
behind  the  hero  of  New  Orleans.  He  was  honest, 
bold,  frank,  and  fearless, — above  all  taint  of  corruption, 
all  suspicion  of  his  integrity,  virtue,  and  courage.  To 
the  majesty  of  this  man's  towering  intellect,  and  his 
high  moral,  social,  and  political  worth,  the  Senate,  in 
the  palmiest  days  of  Clay,  Webster,  Berrien,  Leigh, 
Wright,  Benton,  Tazewell,  White,  Poindexter,  and 
other  Senators  of  the  truest  antique  Koman  mould, 
bowed  in  admiration.  But,  representing  the  Disunion 
sentiment  of  the  times,  he  was  crushed  beneath  the 
heel  of  ANDREW  JACKSON,  and  he  was  sustained  in 
crushing  him  out  by  the  real  people,  irrespective  of 
parties;  for  then,  outside  of  the  Province  of  South 
Carolina,  all  were  intensely  Union  men.  Then,  too, 
the  Democratic  party  were  all  Union  men.  Not  so 
now:  the  pernicious  heresy  of  Disunion,  which  strikes 
its  accursed  roots  so  broadly  and  deeply  into  Southern 
soil,  is  confined  to  the  Democratic  ranks. 

This  fiercely  aggressive  spirit  of  Disunion,  South, 
next  showed  itself  in  the  Hartford  Convention  held  at 
Nashville;  and  then;  as  now,  was  confined  to  the  Den*o- 
cratic  organization.  Their  pretext  for  holding  that 
treasonable  convocation  was.  slavery,  but  their  craven 


54  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

object  was  Disunion.  They  broke  up  the  Whig  party 
in  the  South,  and  merged  all  opposition  into  the  Demo- 
cratic party ;  what  opposition  remained  they  de- 
nounced as  Abolition.  The  next  thing,  and  the  last 
thing,  was  to  break  up  the  Democratic  party  as  a 
national  party,  so  as  to  bring  the  slave-holding  and 
non-slave-holding  States  into  conflict,  divided  upon 
a  geographical  line.  They  well  knew  the  Union  could 
not  long  survive  such  a  division  of  parties,  and  for  that 
reason  alone  brought  it  about. 

Now,  the  men  who  seceded  from  the  Charleston 
Convention  in  April  last  are  the  men  who  have  been 
engineering  for  years  to  break  up  the  union  of  these 
States  and  to  establish  a  Southern  Confederacy.  They 
are  the  followers  of  that  Calhoun  school  which  ANDREW 
JACKSON  broke  up  in  1831.  BRECKINRIDGE  has  loaned 
himself  to  these  bad  men  to  be  used  as  a  tool,  in  the 
sacred  name  of  Democracy,  to  do  a  deed  that  en- 
titles all  concerned  to  an  ignominious  death  under  the 
gallows.  Ay,  we  have  the  strange  spectacle  presented, 
of  men  whose  principles  JACKSON  denounced  as  those 
of  traitors,  setting  themselves  up  for  leaders  of  Demo- 
cracy, while  true  and  consistent  Democrats  are  thrust 
aside  for  devotion  to  the  Jackson  creed ! 

BRECKINRIDGE  now  stands  upon  the  narrow  sectional 
g^pund  that  CALHOUN  occupied  in  his  day;  and  the 
issue  between  BRECKINRIDGE  and  the  other  tickets  in 
the  field;  disguise  it  as  they  may,  is  the  issue  of  Union 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  55 

or  Disunion ;  it  is  an  issue  between  the  United  States 
and  a  Southern  Confederacy.  The  Disunion  men  of 
the  South  have  chosen  their  candidate ;  and  that  man 
is  JOHN  C.  BEECKINEIDGE,  Those  who  act  with  them 
favor  the  cause  of  Disunion,  whether  they  intend  to  do 
so  or  not. 

Knoxville  Whig,  August  11,  1860. 

"Brownlow's  Plag," 

It  is  known  to  this  community  and  to  the  people  of 
this  county  that  I  have  had  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  in 
the  character  of  a  small  flag,  floating  over  my  dwelling, 
in  East  Knoxville,  since  February.  This  flag  has 
become  very  offensive  to  certain  leaders  of  the  Secession 
party  in  this  town,  and  to  certain  would-be  leaders,  and 
the  more  so  as  it  is  about  the  only  one  of  the  kind 
floating  in  the  city.  Squads  of  troops,  from  three  to 
twenty,  have  come  over  to  my  house,  within  the  last 
several  days,  cursing  the  flag  in  front  of  my  house,  and 
threatening  to  take  it  down,  greatly  to  the  annoyance 
of  my  wife  and  children.  No  attack  has  been  made 
upon  it,  and  consequently  we  have  had  no  difficulty. 
It  is  due  to  the  Tennessee  troops  to  say  that  they  have 
never  made  any  such  demonstrations.  Other  troops 
from  the  Southern  States,  passing  on  to  Virginia,  have 
been  induced  to  do  so,  by  certain  cowardly,  sneaking, 
white-livered  scoundrels,  residing  here,  who  have  not 
the  melt  to  undertake  wh  ^t  they  urge  strangers  to  do. 


56  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

One  of  the  Louisiana  squads  proclaimed  in  front  of  my 
house,  on  Thursday,  that  they  were  told  to  take  it 
down  by  citizens  of  Knoxville. 

Now,  I  wish  to  say  a  few  things  to  the  public  in  con- 
nection with  this  subject.  This  flag  is  private  property, 
upon  a  private  dwelling,  in  a  State  that  has  never  voted 
herself  out  of  the  Union  or  into  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy, and  is  therefore  lawfully  and  constitutionally 
under  these  same  Stars  and  Stripes  I  have  floating  over 
my  house.  Until  the  State,  by  her  citizens,  through 
the  ballot-box,  changes  her  Federal  relations,  her  citi- 
zens have  a  right  to  fling  this  banner  to  the  breeze. 
Those  who  are  in  rebellion  against  the  Government 
represented  by  the  Stars  and  Stripes  have  up  the  Rebel 
flag,  and  it  is  a  high  piece  of  work  to  deny  loyal  citizens 
of  the  Union  the  privilege  of  displaying  their  colors  ! 

But  there  is  one  other  feature  of  this  tyranny  and  of 
these  mobocratic  assaults  I  wish  to  lay  before  the  people, 
irrespective  of  parties.  There  are  but  a  few  of  the 
leaders  of  this  Secession  movement  in  Knoxville — less 
than  half  a  dozen — for  wheni  I  entertain  any  sort  of 
respect,  or  whose  good  opinions  I  esteem.  With  one 
of  these  I  had  a  free  and  full  conversation,  more  than 
two  weeks  ago,  in  regard  to  this  whole  question.  I  told 
him  that  we  Union  men  would  make  the  best  fight  we 
could  at  the  ballot-box,  on  the  8th  of  June,  to  keep  the 
Si' ate  in  the  Union;  but  that  if  we  were  overpowered, 
and  a  majority  of  the  people  of  the  State  should  say  in 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  57 

this  constitutional  way  that  she  must  secede;  we  should 
nave  to  come  down,  and  bring  our  flags  with  us,  bowing 
to  the  will  of  the  majority  with  the  best  grace  we  could. 
I  made  the  same  statement  to  the  colonel  who  got  up  a 
regiment  here,  and  to  one  of  his  subordinate  officers.  I 
made  the  same  statement  to  the  president  of  the  rail- 
road, and  I  have  repeatedly  made  the  same  statement 
through  my  paper.  The  whole  Secession  party  here 
know  this  to  be  the  position  and  purpose  of  the  Union 
party;  but  a  portion  of  them  seek  to  bring  about  per- 
sonal conflicts,  and  to  engage  strangers,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  whiskey,  to  do  a  dirty  and  villainous  work  they 
have  the  meanness  to  do,  without  the  courage. 

If  these  God-forsaken  scoundrels  and  hell-deserving 
assassins  want  satisfaction  out  of  me  for  what  I  have 
said  about  them, — and  it  has  been  no  little, — they  can 
find  me  on  these  streets  every  day  of  my  life  but  Sun- 
day. I  am  at  all  times  prepared  to  give  them  satis- 
faction. I  take  back  nothing  I  have  ever  said  against 
the  corrupt  and  unprincipled  villains,  but  reiterate  all, 
cast  it  in  their  dastardly  faces,  and  hurl  down  their 
lying  throats  their  own  infamous  calumnies. 

Finally,  the  destroying  of  my  small  flag  or  of  my  town- 
property  is  a  small  matter.  The  carrying  out  of  the 
State  upon  the  mad  wave  of  Secession  is  also  a  small 
matter,  compared  with  the  great  PRINCIPLE  involved. 
Sink  or  swim,  live  or  die,  survive  or  perish,  I  am  a 
Union  man,  and  awe  my  allegiance  to  the  Stars  and 


58  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

Stripes  of  my  country.  Nor  can  I,  in  any  possible  con- 
tingency, have  any  respect  for  the  Government  of  the 
Confederated  States,  originating  as  it  did  with,  and  being 
controlled  by,  the  worst  men  in  the  South.  And  any 
man  saying — whether  of  high  or  low  degree — that  I  am 
an  Abolitionist  or  a  Black  Eepublican,  is  a  LIAR  and  a 

SCOUNDREL. 

W.  G-.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  May  25, 1861. 

Twelve  Months  Ago, 

On  Saturday  morning,  July  28,  1860,  or  a  year  ago, 
the  following  leading  editorial  appeared  in  our  Tri- 
Weekly  Whig,  and  again,  on  the  following  Saturday,  in 
the  Weekly  Whig.  We  copy  it  by  way  of  vindicating 
our  claims  to  consistency,  and  invite  attention  to  it,  as 
an  article  having  more  interest  about  it  than  it  had 
when  it  was  first  published.  It  was  then  prophetic  ;  it 
is  now  prophecy  fulfilled: — 


We  had  occasion,  while  at  the  White  Sulphur  Springs, 
to  answer  a  long  letter  addressed  to  us  by  a  gentleman 
in  New  York,  who  was  raised  in  the  South,  on  the  sub- 
ject of  national  politics.  In  reply  to  that  letter  he 
says : — 


AMONG   THE   EE  BELS.  59 

"  I  have  perused  your  letter  with  as  much  interest  as 
I  read  your  paper.  .  In  most  of  your  positions  I  agree 
with  you ;  in  some  I  do  not.  Give  us  in  your  next  issue 
your  honest  views  as  to  this  Union  and  its  future.  I 
ask  this  because  I  hear  it  said  you  are  a  Disunionist, 
and  by  others  that  you  are  opposed  to  the  Secessionists. 
Your  editorials  satisfy  me  that  you  are  holding  on  to 
the  Union." 


We  are  now,  as  we  have  always  been,  a  Union  man. 
We  say,  let  the  Union  stand ;  let  the  principles  and 
compromises  of  the  Constitution  be  observed;  let  the 
spirit  of  our  forefathers,  who  framed  out  of  discordant 
materials  this  noble  fabric  of  government,  prevail ;  let 
the  work  of  the  clear  heads  of  Adams,  Hancock,  Jeffer- 
son, Carroll,  Harrison,  and  a  host  of  others,  equally  true 
and  patriotic,  be  perpetual ;  let  sectionalism,  as  held  by 
the  Republicans  of  the  North  and  the  Democrats  of  the 
South,  and  the  evil  passions  of  vile  demagogues,  who 
seek  their  own,  not  their  country's  good,  sink  to  the 
lowest  hell ;  and  let  unity  of  opinion,  tolerance  of  differ- 
ences, and  patriotic  sentiments  alone  be  heard  in  our 
national  councils. 

The  foregoing  are  briefly  our  sentiments,  and  they 
have  never  been  otherwise  during  the  twenty-one  years 
of  our  active  editorial  and  political  life.  But  will  these 
opinions  prevail  in  this  country  ?  We  think  not.  There 
is  at  the  North  a  powerful  party,  called  the  Eepublican 
party,  whose  leading  principle  is  opposition  to  the  spread 
of  slavery  over  territory  now  free :  into  this  party,  purely 


60  BEOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

sectional,  are  going  all  the  shades  of  opinion  opposed  to 
the  institution  of  negro  slavery.  There  is  also  at  the 
North  a  party  calling  itself  Democratic,  by  no  means 
consistent,  and  having  no  fixed  principles,  willing  to 
stand  on  any  sort  of  platform  which  will  secure  to  it  the 
vote  of  the  South  for  the  Presidency  and  the  spoils  of 
office.  In  the  South,  there  is  in  every  State  an  equally 
sectional  organization,  calling  itself  Democratic,  which 
is  dominant  in  all  the  fifteen  States  but  Maryland. 
Southern  Democracy  is  by  no  means  consistent  with 
itself.  A  portion  of  them  hold  on  to  save  the  Govern- 
ment from  disunion;  another  portion  cling  to  the 
organization  expressly  to  overthrow  the  Union ! 

The  large  demands  of  the  leaders  of  Southern  Demo- 
cracy, their  violence  and  ultraism,  are  thinning  the  ranks 
of  the  Northern  Democracy,  and  driving  them  over  to 
the  Northern  anti-slavery  party.  Some  go  directly, 
others  indirectly  by  supporting  Douglas,  whose  prin- 
ciples end  in  Republicanism.  It  is  clear  to  our  mind 
that  the  Democratic  party  has  become  sectional,  and 
that  the  contest  before  the  Charleston  Convention  is  to 
turn  alone  on  the  Slavery  question.  All  interests,  State 
and  National,  are  discarded ;  all  feelings  are  absorbed 
in  the  one  question,  and  that  a  sectional  issue  that  never 
ought  to  have  been  agitated  in  Congress.  This  state  of 
things  cannot  last  many  years  longer.  It  has  but  one 
issue, — that  of  disunion.  The  waters  of  the  Mississippi 
lead  not  more  certainly  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  than  do 


AMONG-   THE   REBELS.  61 

tliese  sectional  issues,  in  the  hands  of  these  parties, 
carry  our  Government  to  certain  destruction.  In  other 
words,  we  think  the  Union  will  be  dissolved.  "We  are 
sorry  to  say  it,  and  sorry  that  we  have  oeen  brought  to 
believe  it;  but  we  are  unable  to  resist  the  evidence 
driving  us  to  this  melancholy  conclusion ! 

Kuoxville  Whig,  July,  1861. 

The  North  and  the  South, 

With  all  our  progressive  developments  in  the  South, 
— and  we  hail  them  all  with  pleasure, — still  we  are,  ex 
necessitate  rei,  largely  dependent  upon  the  mind  and 
labor  of  the  North.  If  this  dependence  be  a  sin,  as 
Southern  fire-eaters  contend  it  is,  how  deeply  we  are  ali 
involved  in  transgression  !  The  very  knives  and  combs 
in  our  pockets,  the  hats  upon  our  heads,  the  shoes  upon 
our  feet,  the  clothes  upon  our  backs,  the  razors  with 
which  we  shave,  the  cologne  with  which  we  perfume  our 
hair,  to  say  nothing  of  the  furniture  of  our  parlors,  the 
ware  upon  our  tables,  the  implements  of  husbandry  in 
our  fields,  the  coffins  in  which  we  are  buried,  the  spades 
with  which  our  graves  are  dug, — all  come  from  the 
North,  and  will  rise  up  and  condemn  us.  "When  we 
have  erected  manufacturing  establishments,  and  ap- 
plauded them  as  Southern  enterprises,  the  truth  still 
stares  us  all  in  the  face  that  they  have  nevertheless  been 
inaugurated  by  Northern  genius,  supplied  by  Northern 
machinery,  and  worked  by  Northern  men.  The  very 


62  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

types  on  which  the  South  is  dependent  for  the  issue  of 
her  scores  of  newspapers  and  periodicals,  as  well  as  our 
printing-presses  and  ink,  to  black  these  types,  come 
from  the  North  !  While,  therefore,  we  consent  to  share 
the  shame  of  this  our  humiliating  dependency,  let  us  be 
a  little  more  slow  to  censure  harshly  the  noble  enter- 
prise of  our  neighbors  beyond  the  Potomac,  and  equally 
so  to  anathematize  our  Southern  neighbors  who  deal 
with  them,  until  we  provide  at  home  the  necessaries  of 
both  life  and  death. 

When  South  Carolina  goes  out  of  the  Union,  and  a 
few  other  "  Cotton  States"  follow  her  iniquitous  example, 
where  will  they  get  shoes  and  coarse  clothes  for  their 
negroes?  Where  will  they  get  types  and  presses  to 
print  their  fire-eating  journals  and  doctrines?  The 
truth  is,  we  are  acting  the  fool  at  the  South,  and  the 
Abolitionists  are  playing  the  same  game  at  the  North. 
We  can't  do  without  their  productions,  and  they  can't 
do  without  our  rice,  sugar,  and  cotton.  Had  we  not, 
then,  better  "live  and  let  live"? 

Knoxville  Whig,  Nov.  10,  1861. 

Multum  in  Paryo, 

"CAMDEN,  ARK.,  June  30,  I860. 

"W.  Gr.  BROWNLOW: — I  have  learned  with  pleasure, 
upon  what  I  consider  reliable  authority,  that  you  have 
made  up  your  mind  to  join  the  Democratic  party,  and 
in  future  to  act  with  us  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  63 

When  will  you  come  out  and  announce  it?  It  will  have 
a  good  effect  in  the  present  election,  if  you  will  make  it 
known  over  your  own  signature.  Hoping  to  hear  from 

you,  I  am,  very  truly, 

"  JORDAN  CLARK." 

KXOXVILLE,  August  6, 1860. 

MR.  JORDAN  CLARK  : — I  have  your  letter  of  the  30th 
ult.,  and  hasten  to  let  you  know  the  precise  time  when 
I  expect  to  come  out  and  formally  announce  that  I  have 
joined  the  Democratic  party.  "When  the  sun  shines  at 
midnight  and  the  moon  at  mid-day;  when  man  forgets 
to  be  selfish,  or  Democrats  lose  their  inclination  to 
steal ;  when  nature  stops  her  onward  march  to  rest,  or 
all  the  water-courses  in  America  flow  up  stream;  when 
flowers  lose  their  odor,  did  trees  shed  no  leaves;  when 
birds  talk,  and  beasts  of  burden  laugh;  when  damned 
spirits  swap  hell  for  heaven  with  the  angels  of  light, 
and  pay  them  the  boot  in  mean  whiskey;  when  impossi- 
bilities are  in  fashion,  and  no  proposition  is  too  absurd 
to  be  believed, — you  may  credit  the  report  that  I  have 
joined  the  Democrats ! 

I  join  the  Democrats  !  Never,  so  long  as  there  are 
sects  in  churches,  weeds  in  gardens,  fleas  in  hog-pens, 
dirt  in  victuals,  disputes  in  families,  wars  with  nations, 
water  in  the  ocean,  bad  men  in  America,  or  base  women 
in  France  !  No,  Jordan  Clark,  you  may  hope,  you  may 
congratulate,  you  may  reason,  you  may  sneer,  but  that 
cannot  be.  The  thrones  of  the  Old  World,  the  courts 


64  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

of  the  universe,  the  governments  of  the  world,  may  all 
fall  and  crumble  into  ruin, — the  New  World  may  com- 
mit the  national  suicide  of  dissolving  this  Union, — but 
all  this,  and  more,  must  occur  before  I  join  the  De- 
mocracy ! 

/  join  the  Democracy  !  Jordan  Clark,  you  know  not 
what  you  say.  When  I  join  Democracy,  the  Pope  of 
Rome  will  join  the  Methodist  Church.  When  Jordan 
Clark,  of  Arkansas,  is  President  of  the  Eepublic  of 
Great  Britain  by  the  universal  suffrage  of  a  contented 
people;  when  Queen  Victoria  consents  to  be  divorced 
from  Prince  Albert  by  a  county  court  in  Kansas ;  when 
Congress  obliges,  by  law,  James  Buchanan  to  marry  a 
European  princess ;  when  the  Pope  leases  the  Capitol  at 
Washington  for  his  city  residence ;  when  Alexander  of 
Russia  and  Napoleon  of  France  are  elected  Senators  in 
Congress  from  New  Mexico;  when  good  men  cease  to 
go  to  heaven,  or  bad  men  to  hell ;  when  this  world  is 
turned  upside  down ;  when  proof  is  afforded,  both  clear 
and  unquestionable,  that  there  is  no  God;  when  men 
turn  to  ants,  and  ants  to  elephants, — I  will  change  my 
political  faith  and  come  out  on  the  side  of  Democracy ! 

Supposing  that  this  full  and  frank  letter  will  enable 
you  to  fix  upon  the  period  when  I  will  come  out  a  full- 
grown  Democrat,  and  to  communicate  the  same  to  all 
whom  it  may  concern  in  Arkansas, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c., 

W.  G.  BEOWNLOW. 


AMONG    THE   BEEELS.  65 


CHAPTEE  II. 

THIRTY-NINE  LASHES  AND  A  COAT  OF  TAB.  AND  FEATHERS  PROMISED 
ME  -  REPLY  TO  W.  L.  YANCEY  ON  THE  PLATFORM  IN  KNOXVILLE  -  DENY- 
ING THE  RIGHT  OF  SECESSION  -  PRONOUNCING  THE  AFRICAN  SLAVE- 
TRADE  PIRACY  -  MY  ANCESTORS  FIGHTING  FOR  THIS  COUNTRY  - 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  THE  RESORT  OF  TORIES  —  NULLIFICATION  IN  1832 
-  NULLIFICATION  AMONG  THE  ANCIENTS. 

A  South  Carolina  Correspondent, 

WE  have  received  the  following  epistle  from  a  digni- 
tary in  South  Carolina,  which  we  think  is  worth  laying 
before  the  public,  and  with  it  we  give  our  reply  :  — 


,  S.C.,  Oct.  4,  I860. 

"W.  G-.  BROWNLOW:  — 


:  —  I  have  been  taking  your  paper  some  time, 
believing  you  to  be  honest  in  your  views.  But  your 
remarks  to  Yancey  convince  me  fully  you  are  a  traitor 
to  the  South  and  to  your  country.  As  to  what  you 
say  of  the  Secessionists,  that  is  true.  I  expect  to  find 
you  and  your  followers  in  the  ranks  of  the  Abolition- 
ists, and  if  so;  so  help  me  God,  I  will  kill  you  the  first 
man.  If  it  should  be  that  we  ever  meet  on  the  soil  of 
South  Carolina,  I  expect  to  be  one  of  the  number  that 
will  give  you  thirty-nine  lashes  on  your  bare  back,  and 


66  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

a  coat  of  tar  and  feathers  afterwards  to  heal  up  the 
stripes. 

"  If  my  time  is  not  out,  stop  my  paper,  anyhow.  I 
make  you  a  present  of  all  you  owe  me,  believing  you 
would  steal  it  if  I  did  not. 

"  Nothing  more  at  present. 

"JOHN  W.  PALMER." 

KNOXVILLE,  Oct.  12,  1860. 

Mr.  JOHN  "W.  PALMER  : — 

I  have  your  polite  favor  of  the  4th  inst.,  requesting 
a  discontinuance  of  the  Whig  to  your  address,  and 
kindly  making  me  a  present  of  "all"  I  am  owing  you. 
I  respectfully  decline  your  liberal  offer,  and  enclose  you 
twenty-four  cents  in  postage-stamps,  the  amount  due 
you  for  the  six  remaining  weeks  required  to  complete 
your  year. 

Your  proposal  to  be  "one  of  a  number"  who  will 
first  thrash  and  then  tar  and  feather  me,  illustrates 
the  spirit  of  the  party  with  which  you  act,  as  well  as 
its  courage.  If  a  member  of  Secessionists  will  join 
you,  you  will  undertake  to  mob  me.  This  is  the  argu- 
ment of  your  party,  and  especially  in  South  Carolina. 
If  you  will  undertake  the  task  "  solitary  and  alone," 
furnishing  me  with  reliable  proof  of  your  respecta- 
bility, I  will  give  you  an  opportunity  of  carrying  out 
your  threats  at  such  time  and  place  as  you  may  desig- 
nate 

I  can,  I  think,  survive  the  shock  of  your  withdrawal 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  67 

from  my  subscription-list.  I  have  a  paying  list  of 
twelve  thousand  subscribers, — more  than  any  other 
political  paper  in  this  State  can  boast  of, — and  I  can 
afford  to  part  with  every  Disunionist  on  my  list,  and 
really  desire  to  be  rid  of  them.  And  if  the  world 
were  rid  of  them,  it  would  be  better  for  the  country. 

My  remarks  to  Yancey,  upon  the  stand,  when  he 
spoke  here,  are  the  immediate  cause  of  your  with- 
drawal, and  proof  to  you  that  you  will  find  me  and 
my  followers  in  the  ranks  of  the  Abolitionists.  Now, 
sir,  what  were  my  remarks,  and  what  is  their  true  im- 
port ?  The  question  was,  would  the  election  of  Lincoln 
be  a  sufficient  cause  for  dissolving  this  Union  ?  I  stood 
forth  upon  the  stand,  by  the  side  of  Mr.  YANCEY,  and 
answered  in  the  following  terms  : — 

"  Yes,  I  endorse  all  Bell  has  said,  and  I  go  further 
than  he  has  gone.  I  am  one  of  a  numerous  party  at 
the  South,  who  will,  if  even  Lincoln  shall  be  elected 
under  the  forms  of  our  Constitution,  and  by  the  author- 
ity of  law,  without  committing  any  other  offence  than 
being  elected,  force  the  vile  Disunionists  and  Seces- 
sionists of  the  South  TO  PASS  OVER  OUR  DEAD  BODIES 
ON  THEIR  MARCH  TO  WASHINGTON  TO  BREAK  UP  THIS 
GOVERNMENT!" 

However  offensive  the  foregoing  sentiment  may  be 
to  Southern  Disunionists,  I  am  proud  of  it,  and  take 
nothing  back.  Our  Government  is  the  greatest  and 
the  best  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  am,  therefore, 
opposed  to  dissolving  it  because  a  man  not  acceptable 


68  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

to  me  is  elected  President,  and  elected  upon  a  sectional 
issue.  The  object  aimed  at  by  the  Disunionists  is, 
that  they  may  re-open  the  slave-trade.  They  prefer 
Disunion  with  the  slave-trade,  to  the  Union  without 
it;  although  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  Supreme  Court,  have  declared  it  to  be  PIRACY. 

The  man  who  calculates  upon  a  peaceable  dissolution 
of  the  Union  is  either  a  madman  or  a  fool.  I  am 
among  those  who  believe  that  the  Union  is  not  going 
to  be  dissolved,  because  the  Disunionists  have  no  right 
to  do  that  thing ;  they  have  no  power,  if  the  right  ex- 
isted ;  and  there  is  no  cause  for  a  dissolution, — not  even 
after  Lincoln  shall  have  been  elected.  I  even  deny  the 
right  of  secession,  and  I  could  here  quote  from  JEF- 
FERSON, MADISON,  EITCHIE,  JACKSON,  and  others,  to 
show  that  the  right  of  secession  does  not  exist;  but 
this  would  extend  my  letter  beyond  the  limits  I  have 
prescribed.  The  American  Constitution,  adopted  in 
Convention,  and  ratified  by  the  States,  is  higher 
authority  than  even  these  great  statesmen;  and  that 
declares : — 


"  This  Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States 
which  shall  be  made  in  pursuance  thereof,  and  all 
treaties  made,  or  which  shall  be  made  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  United  States,  shall  be  the  supreme  law 
of  the  land,  and  the  judges  in  every  State  shall  be 
bound  thereby,  any  thing  in  the  Constitution  or  laws 
of  any  State  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." — Art. 
vi.  Sec.  2. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  69 

For  argument's  sake,  I  will  concede  what  the  Dis- 
union ists  claim, — to  wit,  that  the  right  of  secession  is  a 
"reserved  right."  Let  us  illustrate  that  point.  One 
State  has  as  much  right  to  secede  as  another.  Our 
Government  acquired  Louisiana  by  purchase  from 
Spain,  and  paid  a  round  sum  of  money:  suppose 
Louisiana  should  take  offence  at  some  Federal  law, 
or  at  the  election  of  Lincoln,  and  secede.  What  would 
become  of  all  we  paid  in  the  purchase  ?  We  paid  mil- 
lions for  Texas ;  and  if  she  were  to  secede,  what  becomes 
of  all  that  money  ? 

But  I  am  not  yet  done  with  this  supposable  case  of 
the  election  of  Lincoln.  I  will  say  more  than  I  have 
said,  and  I  will  go  on  to  state  my  position  in  the  event 
of  his  election ;  and  I  am  free  to  confess  that  his  chances 
are  now  better  than  those  of  any  other  candidate  in 
the  field.  Should  Lincoln  be  elected,  and  should  he, 
for  instance,  recommend  the  abolition  of  the  slave- 
trade  between  the  States,  I  shall  advocate  waiting  to 
see  if  Congress  will  sustain  him.  If  Congress  will 
sustain  him  in  the  outrage  and  violation  of  the  Con- 
stitution, I  shall  advocate  an  appeal  to  the  Supreme 
Court;  and  if  that  tribunal  sustain  Lincoln,  I  would 
take  the  ground  that  the  time  for  Revolution  has  come, 
— that  all  the  Southern  States  should  go  into  it;  AND 
I  WOULD  GO  WITH  THEM!  Here  is  where  I  stand, 
and  where  all  Union-loving  and  law-abiding  men  are 


70  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

bound  to  stand,  whether  they  were  born  North  or 
South. 

But,  Mr.  Palmer,  you  say  I  am  a  traitor  to  the  South 
and  to  my  country.  I  am  willing  to  compare  notes 
with  you,  or  any  man  in  the  Disunion  party  South. 
Your  idol,  Yancey,  characterized  the  Bell  men,  in  his 
speech  here,  as  the  descendants  of  Tories.  This  charge 
is  too  base  and  contemptible  to  attempt  a  refutation  of 
it,  and  no  man  but  a  malicious  slanderer  would  urge 
it  in  the  indiscriminate  terms  Yancey  did.  But  how 
stands  the  case  as  between  you  and  myself?  I  am,  as 
were  my  parents  before  me,  a  native  of  Virginia.  A 
portion  of  my  relatives  on  my  mother's  side  were  in 
the  War  of  1812, — the  second  War  of  Independence, — 
and  lost  their  lives  at  Norfolk.  My  father  was  a  "high 
private"  in  Captain  Landon's  company  from  Sullivan 
county,  Tennessee,  when  peace  was  made  and  terminated 
that  war.  My  uncle,  WM.  L.  BROWNLOW,  was  a  cap- 
tain in  the  United  States  Navy,  died  in  the  service, 
and  his  bones  repose  in  the  navy-yard  at  Norfolk. 
Another,  ALEXANDER  BROWNLOW,  was  first  lieutenant 
in  the  Navy  in  that  same  war,  and  his  bones  rest  in 
the  graveyard  at  New  Orleans,  having  died  in  the 
service.  A  third  uncle,  SAMUEL  L.  BROWNLOW,  was  a 
wagon-master  under  General  JACKSON,  and  was  in  the 
battle  of  the  Horseshoe.  A  fourth  uncle,  ISAAC  BROWN- 
LOW,  was  an  inferior  officer  under  General  JACKSON, 
and  bore  his  dispatches  from  the  Creek  War  to  Hunts- 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  71 

ville,  swimming  the  Tennessee  Eiver  on  horseback.  A 
fifth  uncle,  JOHN  BROWNLOW,  was  an  inferior  officer  in 
the  Navy,  and  died  at  sea. 

Now,  sir,  what  is  your  pedigree  ?  You  hail  from  a 
State  which  mustered  more  Tories  in  the  War  of  the 
Eevolution  than  all  the  other  States  in  the  Confederacy 
put  together.  -  There  are,  I  am  free  to  allow,  many 
Union-loving,  law-abiding,  patriotic,  and  gallant  citi- 
zens in  South  Carolina,  and  there  were  during  the  War 
of  the  Eevolution;  but  still,  I  repeat,  it  was  the  resort 
of  Tories,  and  the  home  of  traitors,  during  that  dark 
and  trying  period  of  our  history.  And  I  have  no 
doubt  that  your  ancestors,  on  both  sides,  were  ope- 
rating in  the  cypress-swamps,  and  figured  with  that 
illustrious  class  of  robbers  who  were  hunted  down  by 
General  MARION,  the  "Swamp  Fox,"  for  giving  "aid 
and  comfort"  to  the  British  army. 

I  have  no  doubt  there  are  Tories  enough  still  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  descendants  of  Tories,  to  in- 
fluence an  attempt  to  go  out  of  the  Union  in  the  event 
of  Lincoln's  election.  And  I  think  it  a  great  misfor- 
tune that  the  Constitution  does  not  provide  some  means 
of  letting  that  State  out  peaceably.  As  matters  stand, 
she  will  have  to  be  thrashed  into  line.  It  will  not, 
however,  become  necessary  to  send  an  army  to  South 
Carolina,  if  she  should  attempt  to  secede.  Let  the 
Government  blockade  her  ports;  and  then  let  all  mail- 


72  BKOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

communications  with  the  State  be  closed,  and  she  will 
herself  propose  liberal  terms  of  compromise. 

I  resided  in  South  Carolina  in  1832,  when  Nullifica- 
tion raged,  and  when  the  Ordinance  of  the  Nullifiers  was 
put  forth,  which  called  for  the  proclamation  of  General 
Jackson.  I  took  sides  in  favor  of  the  General  Govern- 
ment then,  as  I  do  now;  while  the  Churches  were 
enveloped  in  the  smoke  of  faction,  and  many  of  the 
ministers — Presbyterians,  Baptists,  and  Methodists — 
volunteered  to  support  the  "  Ordinance,"  and  preached 
expressly  on  Nullification,  declaring  that  it  was  both 
scriptural  and  right.  They  received  new  commissions 
to  "  Go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  Nullification  to 
every  creature;"  and,  like  the  deluded  followers  of 
Mohammed,  they  carried  the  Alkoran  of  Nullification  in 
one  hand,  and  the  sword  of  vengeance  in  the  other. 

The  Nullifiers  throughout  the  country,  in  that  me- 
morable day,  distinguished  themselves  by  wearing  a 
cockade  on  their  hats,  made  of  blue  ribbon.  The  boys, 
not  free  from  the  apron-strings  of  their  mothers,  had 
these  badges  displayed  in  bold  relief  and  in  the  true 
style  of  chivalry.  A  vast  number  of  the  common 
people  left  the  country,  as  they  will  do  again,  not  feel- 
ing exactly  willing  to  fight  the  battles  of  demagogues 
and  designing  leaders. 

It  is  plain  to  be  seen  that  the  same  spirit  of  dis- 
loyalty to  the  Union  which  prevailed  there  in  1832 
is  now  working  in  the  hearts  of  the  Breckinridge  un- 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  73 

believers ;  and  a  similar  fate  awaits  them.  Nullifica- 
tion has  been  attended  with  the  worst  of  consequences 
in  all  ages.  In  the  garden  of  Eden,  our  first  parents 
were  induced  by  the  devil,  in  the  form  of  a  serpent,  to 
nullify  the  laws  of  God;  and,  believing  it  to  be  a 
"  peaceful  remedy,"  they  made  the  dreadful  "  experi- 
ment." Cain,  in  the  case  of  Abel,  nullified  the  law  of 
God ;  and  he  was  branded  in  the  forehead  as  a  trai- 
torous murderer.  The  nation  of  Jews  who  perished 
in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  were  all  nullifiers.  So  were 
the  rebellious  inhabitants  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah. 
And  the  antediluvians,  for  their  South- Carolina  poli- 
tics, encountered  the  very  devil,  in  the  days  of  the 
Flood.  And  the  King  of  Egypt,  in  trying  to  carry 
his  "  Ordinance"  into  effect,  lost  his  life  in  the  Red 
Sea.  And  had  the  "South  Carolina  Nullifiers  gone  a 
little  further  with  their  scheme  of  secession,  Old 
Hickory  Jackson  would  have  drowned  them  in  the 
harbor  of  Charleston.  Indeed,  General  Scott  was 
ordered  to  the  port  of  Charleston  with  the  regular 
army,  and  the  writ  of  old  Jackson  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  United  States  Marshal  for  the  arrest  of  the 
leaders  of  the  rebellion,  with  a  view  to  hanging  them. 
Knowing  this,  they  came  to  terms,  and  a  compromise 
was  effected. 

And,  by  way  of  admonition  to  all  Disunionists,  I 
conclude  this  epistle  in  the  language  of  Holy  Writ : — 
"  Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the  higher  powers. 


74  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

For  there  is  no  power  but  of  God  :  the  powers  that  be 
are  ordained  of  God.  Whosoever  therefore  resisteth 
the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God:  and  they 
that  resist  shall  receive  to  themselves  DAMNATION." 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Oct.  13,  1860. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  75 


CHAPTER  III. 

CASE  OF  REV.  DR.  NEELY,  THE  ALABAMA  SECESSIONIST — PRATING  THE 
SOUTH  NOT  TO  SUBMIT  TO  THE  INAUGURATION  OF  LINCOLN — EXHOR- 
TATION TO  MODERATION. 

Another  Withdrawal  from  our  List, 
THE  following  correspondence  will  explain  itself;  and 
we  therefore  leave  it  to  our  readers  to  pass  upon: — 

"JEFFERSON,  ALA., Oct.  4,  1860. 

"  REV.  W.  G.  BROWNLOW  : 

"DEAR  SIR: — I  subscribed  for  your  paper  a  month 
or  so  ago,  in  the  belief  that  you  would  honorably  advo- 
cate the  principles  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong,  and 
use  all  proper  means  to  secure  the  election  of  Bell  and 
Everett.  But,  a  short  time  since,  to  my  utter  astonish- 
ment, you  published  a  short  editorial  about  Dr.  Neely, 
of  the  Alabama  Conference,  which  I  think  is  very  far 
from  honorable,  and  shows  your  unscrupulousness, 
and  the  little  regard  you  have  for  the  reputation  of 
others,  and  is  also  a  reflection  upon  the  Church  to 
which  Dr.  Neely  belongs,  and  a  slander  upon  the 
Alabama  Conference,  before  which  he  was  tried  and 


76  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

fully  acquitted  of  improper  motives,  and  has  gone  forth 
for  the  last  ten  years  with  the  endorsement  of  this 
body.  I  am  a  strong  party  man,  but  love  my  Church 
and  the  reputation  of  her  ministry  more  than  party; 
and  I  have  no  confidence  in  the  political  honesty  of  a 
man  who  will  defame  the  name  of  a  minister  and 
slander  such  a  body  of  men  as  I  know  the  Alabama 
Conference  to  be,  for  party  purposes.  I  am  no  satellite 
of  Dr.  Neely's:  I  am  barely  acquainted  with  him, — 
only  regard  him  with  that  friendship  I  have  in  common 
for  the  ministers  of  the  Church  to  which  I  belong. 
You  will  please  discontinue  your  slanderous  sheet  to 
my  address,  and  I  will  bestow  my  patronage  upon 
those  who  will  promote  my  political  principles  in  an 
honorable  and  gentlemanly  way. 

"Yours,  &c., 

"A.  W.  COOPER." 

KNOXVILLE,  Oct.  15,  1860. 

MR.  A.  W.  COOPER  : — I  have  before  me  your  insult- 
ing and  dictatorial  epistle,  ordering  a  discontinuance 
of  your  paper  with  something  of  a  flourish, — all  charac- 
teristic of  its  author,  who  is  known  to  be  a  self-willed 
and  self-conceited  man,  suffering  greatly  from  a  disease, 
common  .among  men  of  your  calibre,  known  as  the 
big-head.  You  have  only  thirteen  weeks  of  the  paper 
due  you  after  receiving  the  issue  containing  this  corre- 
spondence; and,  when  you  speak  of  ordering  a  discon- 
tinuance, confine  yourself  to  the  truth  in  this  respect. 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  77 

It  seems  that  I  have  offended  you  by  my  well-timed, 
but  moderate,  castigation  of  Eev.  P.  P.  Neely,  a 
Methodist  travelling  preacher  in  the  Alabama  Confer- 
ence, for  making  stump-speeches  favorable  to  the  cause 
of  Breckinridge  and  of  an  organized  band  of  traitors 
and  hell-hounds  in  the  South,  who  seek  to  overthrow 
this  Government  and  to  erect  upon  its  ruins  a 
Southern  Confederacy,  where  a  few  corrupt  and  ambi- 
tious demagogues  may  get  offices  and  spoils  they  can 
never  enjoy  while  the  Union  is  preserved.  You  say 
that  you  will  bestow  your  patronage  elsewhere.  Do 
so,  and  carry  with  you  as  many  bigoted  Neely  men 
and  as  many  blind  partisan  Methodists  as  you  can 
influence.  I  can  live  without  your  patronage  or  theirs ; 
and,  to  be  candid  with  you  and  them,  I  want  the  names 
of  no  such  partisan  fools  upon  my  list.  Nay,  I  invite 
you  and  Neely,  and  all  such  men  as  can  be  enlisted, 
to  take  the  field  and  the  stump  against  me  and  my 
paper ;  and  the  only  effect  of  your  opposition  will  be  to 
increase  my  list  of  paying  subscribers ! 

Now,  Mr.  Cooper,  you  write  as  "one  having  au- 
thority, and  not  as  these  little  scribes;"  and,  if  you  do 
not  represent  the  "Alabama  Conference,"  you  at  least- 
represent  Neely  and  his  clique.  Let  me  review  you 
and  your  esteemed  pastor  Neely  for  a  brief  spell. 

It  was  in  the  Sumpter  (Ala.)  Democrat  of  September 
1,  I  first  learned  that  Mr.  Neely  had  made  a  stump- 
speech  in  the  court-house  in  Livingston  in  favor  of  the 

7* 


78  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

Breckinridge-Yancey  ticket.  After  this,  I  found  an 
account  of  this  Livingston  speech  by  Neely  in  the 
.  Montgomery  Advertiser,  from  which  I  take  this  brief 
extract,  premising  that  the  Advertiser  characterized  it 
as  a  ''patriotic  and  Christian  sentiment:" — 

"Whilst  he  was  not  a  disunionist  per  se,  yet  'he 
would  get  down  on  his  knees  to  every  man  in  the  South, 
and  beseech  him  not  to  submit  to  the  inauguration  of 
a  Black  Republican  or  his  administration.' " 

Now,  I,  in  commenting  on  this  passage  from  Neely's 
speech,  declared  that  in  counselling  resistance  to  the 
inauguration  and  administration  of  a  man  elected  by  2 
majority  of  the  voters  of  the  country,  under  our  Con 
stitution  and  forms  of  law,  Mr.  Neely  was  neither  re 
presenting  the  sentiments  of  the  Southern  Methodist 
Church  nor  the  teachings  of  Christ  and  his  apostles.  I 
also  stated  that,  as  the  salaried  agent  of  the  Methodist 
Publishing  House  at  Nashville,  he  was  not  required  to 
fall  upon  his  knees  before  any  man  in  the  South,  and 
beseech  him  to  resist,  li  with  force  and  arms,"  the  inau- 
guration and  administration  of  a  Black  Republican  ! 
I  also  stated  that  the  neighbors  and  friends  of  Mr.  Bell 
were  doing,  and  had  done,  more  for  the  "  Southern  Book 
Concern"  than  the  neighbors  and  friends  of  Breckinridge 
had  ever  done  or  ever  would  do.  I  stated — and  now 
repeat — that  there  are  more  Bell-and-Everett  men  in  the 
South  connected  with  the  Methodist  Church  South,  than 
there  are  advocating  Breckinridge  and  Lane,  and  that 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  79 

Bell-and- Everett  Methodists  did  not  care  to  see  the 
Church  pay  any  man  a  large  salary  to  do  the  dirty 
work  of  fatting  upon  his  knees  and  beseeching  Southern 
men  to  resist  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  country 
and  "precipitate  the  Cotton  States  into  a  revolution." 
Our  gospel  is  one  of  peace,  and  not  supported  for  the 
purpose  of  plunging  the  country  into  all  the  horrors 
of  civil  war ! 

For  this,  you  say  I  have  resorted  to  dishonorable 
means  to  secure  the  election  of  Bell  and  Everett,  and 
that  I  am  unscrupulous  and  have  but  little  regard 
for  the  reputation  of  others.  Nay,  you  say  that  I  am 
a  slanderer,  and  have  reflected  upon  the  Alabama  Con- 
ference. In  what  respect  have  I  slandered  Neely  or 
the  Alabama  Conference?  I  said  nothing  about  the 
Alabama  Conference  in  any  publication  I  made ;  and 
you  have  only  evaded  the  truth  in  shielding  Neely 
behind  that  Conference.  I  seek  no  controversy  with 
the  Alabama  Conference ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  I  ask 
no  favors  of  that  body.  I  know  what  my  rights  are, 
and  I  know  where  my  remedy  is  in  a  matter  of  church 

controversy. 

****** 

In  conclusion,  sir,  if  you  can  have  any  control  over 
the  deluded  friends  and  admirers  of  Mr.  Neely,  prevail 
on  them  to  cease  their  clamors  in  his  behalf,  and  espe- 
cially their  letter- writing  and  their  newspaper  eulogies 
of  him  at  the  expense  of  better  men ;  and  let  the  low 


80  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

murm  tilings  of  the  autumnal  night- winds,  sighing 
among  the  tree-tops,  waft  his  faults  and  imperfections 
to  the  distant  shores  of  oblivion !  Prevail  on  him  to 
humble  himself  before  God,  and  pray  much,  repudi- 
ating all  agitation  of  the  questions  now  dividing  the  poli- 
tical parties  of  the  day.  And  then  shall  the  pale  moon- 
beams of  forgetfulness  sleep  around  the  tomb  of  his 
follies,  in  deathlike  stillness,  no  more  making  the  air 
nideous  with  the  mournful  cadences  of  his  past  indis- 
cretions. 

W.  G.  BKOWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Oct.  13,  1860. 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  81 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOUTH   CAROLINA   IN    1780 — HER   CITIZENS    TORIES  AND    ON   THE    SIDE 
OF    THE    BRITISH    CROWN — TWO    HUNDRED   AND   TWENTY-SIX   TORIES 

IN    CHARLESTON    ADDRESSING    SIR    HENRY    CLINTON R.    BARNWELL 

RHETT    CHANGES    HIS    NAME THE    DESCENDANTS    OF    THESE    TORIES 

«PREAD    OVER   THE    SOUTH — SOUTH   CAROLINA   ROYALTY. 

South  Carolina  in  1780, 

IN  the  spring  of  1780,  Sir  Henry  Clinton  and  Vice- 
Admiral  Arbuthnot  appeared  before  Charleston  and 
demanded  a  surrender  to  His  British  Majesty's  forces. 
The  gallant  General  LINCOLN,  in  command  of  the  Ame- 
rican forces,  repulsed  this  arrogant  demand  with  the 
scorn  and  contempt  of  a  brave  officer.  They  have 
hated  the  name  of  Lincoln  ever  since !  The  people  of 
Charleston,  and  of  nearly  all  South  Carolina,  being 
Tories  of  the  basest  character,  took  the  matter  into 
their  own  hands,  and  threatened  the  gallant  Lincoln 
with  betraying  him  into  the  hands  of  the  British  forces 
if  he  did  not  come  to  such  terms  as  pleased  them.  And 
Sir  Henry  Clinton,  writing  to  Lord  George  Germaine, 
one  of  His  Majesty's  principal  Secretaries  of  State,  from 
"  Head  Quarters,  Charles-Town,  South  Carolina,  June 
4th,  1780,"  by  way  of  boast,  says, — 


82  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

"  With  the  greatest  pleasure  I  further  report  to  your 
lordship  that  the  inhabitants  from  every  quarter  re- 
pair to  the  detachments  of  the  army,  and  to  this  gar- 
rison, to  declare  their  allegiance  to  the  King,  and  to 
offer  their  services  in  arms  in  support  of  his  govern- 
ment. In  many  instances  they  have  brought  prisoners 
their  former  oppressors  or  leaders ;  and  I  may  ven- 
ture to  assert  that  there  are  few  men  in  South  Carolina 
who  are  not  either  our  prisoners  or  in  arms  with  us." 

The  very  day  after  Sir  Henry  Clinton  wrote  that 
letter  disclosing  the  Toryism  of  South  Carolina,  two 
hundred  and  twenty-six  of  their  leading  citizens,  repre- 
senting almost  every  family  connection  in  the  State, 
addressed  the  following  begging,  supplicating  petition  to 
Sir  Henry,  furnishing  the  proof  of  their  own  infamy : — 

<(  To  their  Excellencies  SIR  HENRY  CLINTON,  Knight  of 
the  Bath,  General  of  His  Majesty's  Forces,  and 
MARIOT  ARBUTHNOT,  Esq.,  Vice-Admiral  of  the 
Blue,  His  Majesty's  Commissioners  to  restore  peace 
and  good  government  in  the  several  colonies  in  rebel- 
lion in  North  America  : 

"  THE  HUMBLE  ADDRESS  OF  DIVERS  INHABITANTS  OP 
CHARLES-TOWN  : 

"The  inhabitants  of  Charles-Town,  by  the  articles 
of  capitulation,  are  declared  prisoners  on  parole;  but 
we  the  underwriters,  having  every  inducement  to  return 
to  our  allegiance,  and  ardently  hoping  speedily  to  be 
readmitted  to  the  character  and  condition  of  British 
subjects,  take  this  opportunity  of  tendering  to  your 
Excellencies  our  warmest  congratulations  on  the  restora- 
tion of  this  capital  and  Province  to  their  political  con- 
nection with  the  Crown  and  Government  of  Great 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  83 

Britain ;  an  event  which  will  add  lustre  to  your  Excel- 
lencies' characters,  and,  we  trust,  entitle  you  to  the 
mosi  distinguished  mark  of  the  Royal  favor.  Although 
the  right  of  taxing  America  in  Parliament  excited  con- 
siderable ferments  in  the  minds  of  the  people  of  the 
Province,  yet  it  may,  with  a  religious  adherence  to 
truth,  be  affirmed,  that  they  did  not  entertain  the  most 
distant  thought  of  dissolving  the  union  which  so  hap- 
pily subsisted  between  them  and  their  parent  country; 
and  when,  in  the  progress  of  that  fatal  controversy,  THE 
DOCTRINE  OF  INDEPENDENCY,  WHICH  ORIGINATED  IN 
THE  MORE  NORTHERN  COLONIES,  made  its  appearance 
among  us,  OUR  NATURE  REVOLTED  AT  THE  IDEA,  and 
we  look  back  with  the  most  painful  regret  on  those 
convulsions  that  gave  existence  to  a  power  of  subvert- 
ing a  Constitution,  for  which  we  always  had,  and  ever 
shall  retain,  the  most  profound  veneration,  and  substi- 
tuting in  its  stead  a  RANK  DEMOCRACY,  which,  however 
carefully  digested  in  theory,  on  being  reduced  into 
practice,  has  exhibited  a  system  of  tyrannic  domination 
only  to  be  found  among  the  uncivilized  part  of  man- 
kind, or  in  the  history  of  the  dark  and  barbarous  ages 
of  antiquity. 

"  We  sincerely  lament,  that  after  the  repeal  of  those 
statutes  which  gave  rise  to  the  troubles  in  America, 
the  overtures  made  by  His  Majesty's  Commissioners, 
from  time  to  time,  were  not  regarded  by  our  late  rulers. 
To  this  fatal  inattention  are  to  be  attributed  those 
calamities  which  have  involved  our  country  in  a  state 
of  misery  and  ruin,  from  which,  however,  we  trust,  it 
will  soon  emerge,  by  the  wisdom  and  clemency  of  His 
Majesty's  auspicious  Government,  and  the  influence  of 
prudential  laws,  adapted  to  the  nature  of  the  evils  we 
labor  under ;  and  that  the  people  will  be  restored  to 
those  privileges,  in  the  enjoyment  whereof  their  former 
felicity  consisted. 

"  Animated  with  these  hopes,  we  entreat  your  Excel- 
lencies' interposition,  in  assuring  His  Majesty  that  we 


84 


BBOWNLOWS    EXPERIENCES 


shall  glory  in  every  occasion  of  manifesting  that  zeal 
and  affection  for  his  person  and  Government,  with 
which  gratitude  can  inspire  a  free  and  joyful  people. 

"  CHARLES-TOWN,  June  5,  1780. 


John  Wragg, 
Wm.  Glinn, 
John  Stopton, 
John  Eose, 
Wm.  Greenwood, 
Jacob  Vulk, 
Robert  Wilson, 
Leonard  Askew, 
And.  McKenzie, 
Eob.  Lithgow, 
Wm.  Wayne, 
Jas.  G.  Williams, 
James  Eoss, 
John  Moncrief, 
John  Wells,  jr., 
Allard  Bellin, 
John  Wogner, 
John  Ward  Taylor, 
Jock  Holmes, 
James  Mesgown 
Wm.  Davie, 
James  Dunning, 
John  Sprisd, 
Wm.  Nervcob, 
John  Daniel, 
John  Collum, 
John  Smith, 
Lewis  Dutarque, 
James  McKlown, 
Wm.  Burt, 
John  Watson, 
Anthony  Montell, 
James  Lynch, 


And.  Mitchell, 
Parq.  McCollum, 
George  Adamson, 
Wm.  Vallentine, 
Christo.  Williman, 
D.  Pendergass, 
Daniel  Bell, 
Edw.  Cure, 
Thomas  Timms, 
Thomas  Buckle,  sr., 
Hopkins  Price, 
George  Denholm, 
Eoger  Brown, 
James  Strictland, 
Wm.  McKinney, 
John  Abercrombie, 
David  Bruce, 
John  Gray, 
Thos.  Dawson, 
Tho.  Winstanley, 
Cha.  Eamadge, 
Win.  Bower, 
Alex.  Walker, 
John  Lyon, 
Eobert  Philip, 
Eobert  Johnson, 
David  Tayler, 
John  Latuff, 
John  Gillsnocz, 
John  Barson, 
Jo.  Donaven,  jr., 
Nicholas  Boden, 
Ja.  McKenzie, 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS. 


85 


George  Grant, 
Abraham  Pearce, 
John  Miot, 
Fred.  Augustine, 
John  Webb, 
Eobert  Williams, 
Alex.  Macbeth, 
John  Eobertson, 
John  Liber, 
Hugh  Eose, 
Patrick  Bower, 
Thomas  Todd, 
Brian  Foskie, 
Thomas  Eustace, 
Emanuel  Marshall, 
Thomas  Clary, 
Thomas  Hooper, 
Ch.  Sutter, 
Eobert  Lindsey, 
Tho.  Eichardson, 
James  Each, 
Peter  Dumont, 
Tho.  Saunders, 
Ed.  Legge, 
Henry  Hardroff, 
Aaron  Locoock, 
Arch.  Brown, 
Wm.  Eussell, 
Thomas  Coram, 
James  Hartley, 
Andrew  Thompson, 
William  Layton, 
Nich.  Smith, 
Andrew  Stewart, 
John  Hartley, 
James  Cook, 
Ch.  Fitz  Simmons, 
John  Davis, 


Henry  Walsh, 
Isaac  Clarke, 
John  Durst, 
William  Cameron, 
John  Eussell, 
John  Bell, 
John  Hayes, 
James  McKie, 
James  Gillandeau, 
Hugh  Truir, 
Lewis  Coffere, 
Hugh  Kirkham, 
Wm.  Farrow, 
Wm.  Arisam, 
Tho.  Deighton, 
Eobert  Paterson, 
John  Parkinson, 
John  Love, 
Alex.  Ingles, 
William  Mills, 
James  Duncan, 
Ja.  Blackburn, 
John  Johnston, 
Samuel  Perry, 
Geo.  E.  Williams, 
Matthias  Hunkin, 
Edm.  Petrie, 
Wm.  Nisbett, 
Geo.  Cook, 
Tho.  Stewart, 
Gideon  Dupont,  jr., 
Jer.  Savage, 
Andrew  Eeid, 
Jeph  Kingsby, 
Alex.  Oliphant, 
Paul  Hamilton, 
Ch.  Bouchomeau, 
John  Bury, 


86 


BEOWNLOWS     EXPERIENCES 


BGDJ.  Baker,  sen., 
John  Fisher, 
Charles  Atkins, 
Wm.  Edwards, 
Thos.  Buckle,  jr., 
Henry  Ephram, 
John  Hartley, 
James  Carmichael, 
Samuel  Adams, 
Chr.  Shutts, 
Alex.  Smith, 
John  McCall, 
Michael  Hubert, 
Joseph  Jones, 
Henry  Branton, 
John  Callagan, 
John  Ealph, 
Samuel  Bower, 
George  Young, 
Jas.  Milligan, 
Anthony  Geaubeau, 
William  Smith, 
Jas.  Robertson, 
Michael  Quin, 
John  Gornley, 
Walter  Rosewell, 
Rii^iard  Dennis, 
oim  W.  Gibbs, 
Benj.  Sinker, 
John  Eartels, 
Wm.  Miller, 
John  Burges, 


Daniel  Boyne, 
Peter  Lambert, 
Hen.  Bookless, 
Thomas  Hutchinson, 
Thomas  Mise, 
Alex.  Harvey, 
John  Paffork, 
Tho.  Phepoe, 
Samuel  Knight, 
Archibald  Carson, 
Tho.  Elliott, 
Gilbert  Chaliner, 
Arch.  Downs, 
Alex.  Johnstone, 
James  Fagan, 
Ja.  Bryant, 
James  Courtonque, 
Joseph  Wyatt, 
John  Cuple, 
James  McLinachus, 
Wm.  Jennings, 
Patrick  McKam, 
Robert  Beard, 
Stephen  Townshend, 
Ja.  Snead, 
Ch.  Burnham, 
Charles  H.  Simonds, 
Rob.  Mclntosh, 
G.  Thompson, 
Isaac  Lessenes, 
Isaac  Manyeh, 
Peter  Procue." 


We  print  the  names  of  these  infamous  Tories,  because 
their  descendants  are  spread  all  over  the  South,  and 
a  portion  of  them  are  now  figuring  in  lids  Secession 
movement,  and  some  of  them  ever  in  their  late  Con- 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  87 

vention.  They  have  a  hereditary  title  to  the  contempt 
of  all  honest  and  patriotic  men.  HH^HT*  Did  not  a  man 
by  the  name  of  R.  Barnwell  Smith,  some  twenty-five 
or  thirty  years  ago,  have  his  name  changed  to  that  of 
Rhett,  by  the  Legislature  ?  and,  if  so,  what  was  the  mo- 
tive ?  Was  he  not  prominent  in  the  late  Convention, 
in  declaring  South  Carolina  out  of  this  Union  ?  We 
ask  for  information;  because  there  have  been  more 
names  changed  in  South  Carolina,  by  Act  of  General 
Assembly,  than  in  any  State  in  the  Union ! 

In  thus  showing  up  the  original  Toryism  of  South 
Carolina,  we  have  desired  to  retort  upon  Mr.  Yancey, 
who  stood  upon  the  platform  in  Knoxville  last  summer, 
and  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  Bell-and-Everett 
men  of  the  South  were  the  descendants  of  the  Tories 
of  the  Eevolution.  Mr.  Yancey  is  a  native  of  South 
Carolina ;  and  who  among  this  list  of  names  were  his 
"  illustrious  predecessors"  ?  He  may  pei  haps  be  able 
to  say,  when  he  inspects  the  list ! 

All  who  have  noticed  with  care  the  proceedings  in 
the  South  Carolina  Convention  must  have  been  struck 
with  the  royalty  displayed,  when  their  President  was 
marched  in,  dressed  in  mazarine  blue,  and  attended 
by  Lords  and  Commoners,  equalling  the  coronation 
services  in  the  installation  of  a  king.  There  is  a 
great  deal  of  this  monarchical  and  despotic  feeling  in 
South  Carolina.  To  this  very  day,  they  clothe  their 
circuit  judges  in  black  silk  gowns,  and  attend  them 


88  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

to  and  from  the  court-room  every  time  court  adjourns, 
with  a  sheriff  and  his  deputy  on  either  side,  wearing 
cocked  hats,  and  carrying  drawn  swords  in  their 
hands !  We  have  witnessed  this  mock-royalty  time 
and  again,  and  laughed  in  our  sleeves,  as  these  dig- 
nitaries approached ! 

These  are  not  the  people  to  head  a  Confederacy  for 
Tennesseeans  to  fall  into.  Their  notions  of  royalty,  and 
their  contempt  for  the  common  people,  will  never  suit 
Tennesseeans.  In  Tennessee,  free  white  men  vote  who 
are  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  they  are  not  required  to 
own  land  and  negroes  before  they  are  qualified  to  vote. 
In  a  late  speech  made  by  R.  Barnwell  Rhett — who,  by 
the  way,  was  the  leading  spirit  in  this  Convention — he 
distinctly  enunciated  that  capital  and  property  must- 
hereafter  be  represented  at  the  ballot-box.  It  is  not 
strange  that  Andy  Johnson,  a  tailor  by  trade,  should 
denounce  this  whole  movement  in  a  speech  in  the 
Senate !  And  nine-tenths  of  our  people  will  veto  this 
Southern  Confederacy  at  the  ballot-box,  and  vote  to 
stay  in  the  Confederacy  founded  by  GEORGE  WASHING- 
TON and  others,  who  thought  a  poor  but  honest  man 
should  be  entitled  to  vote  for  or  against  those  who 
were  to  rule  over  him !  Let  Tennessee  once  go  into 
this  Empire  of  Cotton  States,  and  all  poor  men  will  at 
once  become  the  free  negroes  of  the  Empire  !  We  are 
down  upon  the  whole  scheme. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Jan.  12,  1861. 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  89 


CHAPTER  V. 

THREATENING    TO    HANG    US    FOR.    OUR    PRINCIPLES CHARGES  US  WITH 

BEING     A     YANKEE THE     WICKEDNESS     OP     SECESSION ORIGIN     OF 

SECESSION SOUTH  CAROLINA    FIRES    THE    FIRST    GUN FREEDOM  OF 

SPEECH    TO    BE    DENIED STANDING    OUT    FOR    THE    UNION. 

Threatening  to  Hang  us ! 

WE  call  attention  to  the  two  following  letters,  as 
tney  are  from  men  responsible  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Secessionists,  and  reflect  the  sentiments  and  feelings 
of  the  great  Southern  mob  known  by  this  name.  The 
Georgia  letter  regards  us  as  seceding  from  the  South, 
and  threatens  violence.  This  letter  we  give  entire. 
The  one  from  Mississippi  comes  out  in  the  prescriptive 
and  mobocratic  spirit  of  this  whole  party  in  the  South. 
We  give  an  extract : — 

"  COYINGTON,  Jan.  8,  1861. 

"  BROTHER  BROWKLOW  : — 

Having  been  a  subscriber  to  your  once  readable 
paper  for  a  goodly  number  of  years,  and  having  through 
the  agency  of  its  columns  formed  an  opinion  of  your 
character  which  I  must  in  candor  own  was  favorable, 
I  take  the  privilege  which  my  age,  experience,  and  posi- 
tion in  society  afford  me,  to  advise,  entreat,  and  warn 

8* 


90  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

you  of  your  approaching  danger.  Among  the  most 
important  things  in  which  we  have  noticed  your  devia- 
tion from  the  path  of  rectitude  is;  that  in  this  pre- 
sent political  commotion  you  have  dabbled  more  than 
becomes  you.  From  all  appearances,  you  have  turned 
from  a  private  and  respected  citizen  to  a  contentious, 
quarrelsome  politician, — from  a  Southern-Eights  man  to 
a  friend  of  the  North, — from  a  Union  man  to  a  Seces- 
sionist. Can  these  charges  be  true?  Am  I  not  de- 
ceived ?  I  hope  so.  Yet  these  reports  come  from 
every  quarter,  and  are  strengthened  by  the  tone  of  your 
paper.  With  you  alone,  my  dear  brother,  it  remains 
to  refute  them  by  your  future  conduct.  These  remarks 
are  prompted  by  a  generous  heart,  and  the  feeling  that 
causes  a  friend  to  inform  another  of  his  errors,  hoping 
thereby  to  correct  them.  "We  will  close,  as  'a  word 
to  the  wise  is  sufficient.'  That  a  speedy  reformation 
may  take  place,  is  the  wish  of 

"Your  affectionate  friend, 

"  GEORGE  P.  NICKOLS." 

"  CORINTH,  Miss.,  Jan.  10,  1861. 

"  MR.  BROWNLOW,  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA  : 
— I  see,  in  a  late  issue  of  your  dirty  sheet,  that  you  are 
full  of  braggadocio,  and  that  you  declare  positively  that 
if  Tennessee,  and  the  South  generally,  secede,  you  will 
still  cling  to  that  most  abominable  of  all  abominations, 
the  Union.  Now,  Parson,  if  you  adopt  this  policy, 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  91 

what  do  you  think  will  be  the  consequence  ?  You  will 
certainly  be  hung,  as  all  dogs  should  be;  until  you  are 
'dead,  dead.'  Your  crime  will  be  treason  of  the  deep- 
est dye. 

"I  have  never  believed  you  to  be  a  Southern  man, 
but  a  shrewd,  money-making  Yankee;  and,  if  you  will 
give  me  time,  I  will  look  into  your  nativity.  When 
Tennessee  secedes,  I  will  head  a  company  of  Tennes- 
seeans  and  Mississippians  and  proceed  to  hang  you  by 
law,  or  by  force  if  need  be.  The  South  can  look  upon 
you  in  no  other  light  than  as  a  traitor  and  a  Tory,  and 
the  twin  brother  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Eemember,  and 
beware,  you  shall  be  hung  in  the  year  1861,  unless  you 
conclude  to  live  the  life  of  an  exile. 

"  Yours,  &c., 

"W.  M.  YANCEY." 

KNOXVILLE,  Jan.  15,  1861. 

MATCHLESS  SIRS: — 

In  a  brief  reply  to  your  letters,  I  will  first  correct 
the  error  into  which  one  of  you  has  fallen  as  it  regards 
my  nativity,  &c.  I  am  not  "  a  shrewd,  money-making 
Yankee,"  nor  am  I  a  money-making  man  at  all, — never 
was.  My  town-property  and  printing-office  I  estimate 
to  oe  worth  about  ten  thousand  dollars.  This  is  all 
I  have,  and  is  fully  as  much  as  I  ever  did  own  at  any 
one  time.  I  am,  therefore,  a  poor  man,  and  never  ex- 
pect to  be  any  thing  else.  It  would  have  been  other- 


92  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

wise  with  me,  if  I  had  not  given  away  half  of  all  I 
ever  did  make,  and  if  I  had  sought  to  make  money. 

As  it  regards  my  nativity,  I  was  born  and  raised  in 
Wythe  county,  Virginia,  and  my  parents  were  both 
natives  of  the  same  State.  I  have  lived  in  East  Ten- 
nessee for  thirty  years ;  and,  although  I  am  now  fifty- 
five  years  of  age,  I  walk  erect,  have  but  few  gray  hairs, 
and  look  to  be  younger  than  any  whiskey-drinking, 
tobacco-chewing,  profane-swearing  Secessionist  in  any 
of  the  Cotton  States,  of  forty  years. 

As  it  regards  your  threats,  (and  both  of  your  letters 
are  of  a  threatening  character,)  they  have  no  terrors  for 
me.  I  have  no  doubt  but  there  are  thousands  of  Seces- 
sionists in  the  South  who  would  be  willing  to  see  me 
hung,  and  would  assist  in  swinging  me  up,  could  they 
have  the  slightest  pretext  for  so  doing,  and  meet  with 
an  opportunity.  When  you  come  to  East  Tennessee, 
•vlth  a  company  of  Tennesseeans,  Mississippians,  and 
Georgians,  to  hang  me,  please  give  me  ten  days'  notice, 
and  I  will  muster  men  enough  in  the  county  where  I 
reside,  to  hang  the  last  rascal  among  you,  and  then  use 
your  carcasses  for  wolf-bait ! 

This  whole  scheme  of  Secession  is  the  most  wicked, 
diabolical,  and  infernal  scheme  ever  set  on  foot  for  the 
ruin  of  any  country.  It  has  long  been  contemplated 
by  the  Tory  leaders  of  the  Cotton  States,  and  the  de- 
tails of  it,  I  see,  have  just  come  to  light  through  the  Na- 
tional Intelligencer,  one  of  the  most  reliable  journals  in 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  ^3 

America.  The  scheme  to  avoid  a  collision  about  the 
revenue,  is  to  declare  Southern  ports  free  to  the  com- 
merce of  the  world,  raise  their  revenues  by  direct  taxa- 
tion and  forced  loans,  and  leave  the  United  States  and 
foreign  Governments  to  fight  out  the  question  of  the  col- 
lection of  the  revenue.  Another  one  of  their  schemes 
was  to  seize  upon  all  the  forts  and  Southern  fortifica- 
tions along  the  entire  coast  from  Maryland  to  Texas: 
and  this,  like  lawless  rebels,  they  have  been  doing,  even 
bv  -fore  they  have  seceded.  This  was  all  agreed  upon  be- 
fore the  Charleston  Convention,  and  a  part  of  the  pro- 
gramme was  to  break  it  up  in  a  row,  and  prevent  the 
nomination  of  Douglas,  for  if  nominated  they  knew  he 
could  be  elected,  and  this  would  prolong  the  existence  of 
"that  most  abominable  of  all  abominations,  the  Union," 
at  least  four  years  longer. 

South  Carolina,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  and  Florida 
have  actually  gone  out  of  the  Union,  and  Georgia, 
Louisiana,  Arkansas,  and  Texas  will  soon  follow. 
The  first  four  States  named  have  passed  their  Ordi- 
nances of  Secession,  and  published  them  to  the  world. 
They  call  them  ordinances;  I  call  them  so  many 
covenants  with  death  and  agreements  with  hell !  They 
are  so  many  decrees  to  carry  out  the  behests  of  mad- 
men and  traitors.  Each  ordinance  is  the  twin  sister 
of  treason, — "  treason  de  facto."  0  Secessionism !  "hell 
is  moved  at  thy  coming; "for  hell  and  its  infinitely 
infernal  Government  are  thy  offspring.  The  fallen 


94  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

angels  were  the  first  seceders  from  Paradise,  and 
declared  their  "independence"  by  promulgating  an 
ordinance  in  "  a  lake  that  burns  with  fire  and  brim- 
stone," and  "where  there  is  weeping,  wailing,  and 
gnashing  of  teeth;  and  where  the  smoke  of  their 
torment  ascends  up  for  ever  and  ever," — the  reward  oi 
their  treason  being  "eternal  damnation." 

But  war  has  commenced.  The  first  guns  have  been 
fired, — and  fired  by  South  Carolina  rebels  upon  un- 
offending American  soldiers  sailing  into  port  und^r 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  of  their  country.  In  four  of  che 
States  of  this  Confederacy  rebellion  bids  defiance  to  law, 
and  "bloody  treason  flourishes  over  us."  Throughout 
these  four  States,  judgment  and  truth  seem  to  have 
"  fled  to  brutish  beasts,  and  men  have  lost  their 
reason."  Even  in  the  halls  of  our  national  Capitol 
traitors  stalk  unblushingly,  and  openly  proclaim  their 
treason,  denouncing  the  Government  and  declaring 
their  purpose  to  destroy  it.  Traitors  stand  on  the 
floor  of  the  American  Senate  and  receive  nine  dollars 
per  day  for  proclaiming  treason,  rank  and  damning, — 
for  which  they  ought  to  be  hung,  and  would  be  if 
thfc  laws  of  the  land  were  enforced. 

Every  man  who  is  worthy  of  the  name  of  an 
American  citizen  will  denounce  this  treason,  and  rally 
to  the  defence  of  our  Constitution  and  laws.  They  are 
the  bonds  of  our  Union,  and  around  that  Union  clus- 
ter the  hallowed  memories  of  the  past  and  the  brightest 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  95 

hopes  and  dearest  interests  of  the  future.  Blood,  it 
is  plain  to  be  seen,  will  be  shed  in  its  defence ;  but 
upon  these  Secession  aggressors  be  the  consequences 
and  responsibilities. 

I  am  for  my  country,  and  on  the  side  of  the  General 
Government ;  and  in  every  contest,  either  at  sea  or  on 
land,  I  shall  rejoice  in  the  triumph  of  the  Government 
troops  fighting  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Should 
Tennessee  go  out  of  the  Union,  I  shall  continue  to 
denounce  Secessionism,  and  war  against  the  storms  of 
fanaticism  at  the  North  and  the  assaults  of  dema- 
gogues and  traitors  at  the  South,  though  their  number 
be  legion.  In  all  candor,  I  believe  that  in  a  Southern 
Confederacy  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press 
will  be  denied ;  and  for  the  exercise  of  them  I  will  be 
hung.  But,  come  what  may,  through  weal  or  woe,  in 
peace  or  war,  no  earthly  power  shall  keep  me  from 
denouncing  the  enemies  of  my  country  until  my  tongue 
and  pen  are  paralyzed  in  death !  Once  destroyed,  this 
Union  can  never  be  reconstructed.  And,  with  others, 
I  have  resolved  that  no  earthly  power  shall  prevail 
against  it ;  that  it  shall  be  "  perpetual,"  as  our  fathers 
intended  it, — "one  and  indivisible,  now  and  forever." 

W.  G.  BKOWNLOW, 
Editor  of  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Jan.  19,  1861. 


96  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTEE  VI. 

PATRONAGE  WITHDRAWN  FROM  MY  PAPER — PREDICTING  THE  SUCCESS 

OF  SECESSION THE  AUTHOR  ALWAYS  AFTER  OFFICE INDEBTEDNESS 

TO  STORES — OUR  OWN  PARTISANS  REFUSING  TO  ENDORSE  US — MEM- 
BERS OF  THE  CHURCH  SPURNING  US. 

A  South  Carolina  Correspondent. 

WE  are  receiving  quite  a  number  of  letters  from 
South  Carolina,  and  it  is  only  at  intervals  that  we  con- 
descend to  notice  one,  and  then  only  when  the  name 
of  the  writer  is  given.  The  following  polite  note  we 
publish  on  account  of  its  information  derived  from 
Knoxmlle : — 

"ABBEVILLE  C.  H.,  S.C.,  Jan.  27,  1861. 

"  W.  G.  BROWNLOW  :— 

"  SIR  : — I  wrote  to  you  a  few  days  ago  under  the  sig- 
nature of  'T.  J.  C./  and  informed  you  that  you  were 
the  greatest  liar  out  of  hell,  and  one  of  the  most  in- 
famous scoundrels  living  between  heaven  and  earth; 
and  I  then  told  you,  and  now  repeat,  that  nothing 
would  afford  us  as  much  pleasure  as  to  see  you  in 
Abbeville,  where  we  could  treat  you  to  a  coat  of  tar 
and  feathers.  I  told  you  in  that  brief  letter  that  my 
understanding  was  that  the  people  of  Knoxville  were 
a  respectable  and  intelligent  people,  and  that  it  was 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  97 

a  matter  of  surprise  that  they  would  allow  you  to  re- 
main in  their  midst, — a  vile  scamp,  as  you  have  shown 
yourself  to  be. 

"  Since  writing  that  note  to  you,  I  have  seen  a  long 
and  interesting  letter  from  Knoxville  to  a  citizen  of 
this  Eepublic,  giving  some  facts  in  regard  to  you  that 
I  am  resolved  the  world  shall  know,  at  least  to  the 
extent  of  the  circulation  of  Southern  papers.  I  was 
permitted  to  take  down  the  points  made  against  you 
in  the  Knoxville  letter,  and  they  are  as  follows : — 

"  1.  The  Southern  States  having  withdrawn  their 
patronage  from  your  Abolition  sheet,  you  no  longer 
have  subscribers  enough  to  defray  the  expenses  of  pub- 
lication, and  you  are  about  to  starve  out. 

"2.  The  town  and  county  in  which  you  publish  your 
slanderous  sheet  will  shortly  cast  a  majoritv  of  their 
votes  for  Secession,  and  so  will  your  State. 

"3.  You  have  repeatedly  thrust  yourself  forw;,  1  as 
a  candidate  for  office,  but  never  have  been  elected. 

"  4.  You  are  indebted  to  every  store  in  your  town, 
• — and  nothing  can  be  made  out  of  you  at  law, — until 
you  cannot  get  credit  in  any  store  for  a  suit  of  clothes ! 

"  5.  Your  own  partisans  refuse,  upon  the  stump,  to 
endorse  any  thing  you  say,  and  will  not  be  held  to  an 
account  for  your  doctrines ;  while  the  common  people 
send  off  to  other  sections  of  your  State  for  news- 
papers. 

"6.  The  members  of  your  Church  have  no  respect 


yo  BROWNLOW  S    EXPERIENCES 

for  you;  and  the  better  class  refuse  to  speak  to  you, 
either  publicly  or  privately. 

"  This;  you  lying  old  hypocrite,  is  your  character 
furnished  by  a  South  Carolinian  from  your  own  town, 
where  you  are  best  known. 

"  T.  J.  ClNCLAIR." 
• 

KNOXVILLE,  Feb.  14,  1861. 

T.  J.  CINCLAIR  : — Your  insulting  letter  is  before  me, 
and  I  take  the  opportunity  to  reply,  though  I  have  no 
idea  that  I  am  replying  to  a  gentleman,  or  a  man  who 
pays  his  just  debts,  or  tells  the  truth  in  common  con- 
versation. I  am  not  ignorant  of  the  deadly  opposition 
to  me  in  South  Carolina,  and  more  especially  from  the 
blackguard  portion  of  her  citizens,  of  whom  you  are 
a  fit  representative.  I  expect  that  the  vials  of  con- 
tumely, reproach,  and  defamation  will  be  poured  upon 
me  by  a  hireling  press  of  a  corrupt  and  plundering 
Southern  Confederacy,  by  the  insolvent  bullies,  hard- 
ened liars,  and  vulgar  cut-throats  whose  only  ambi- 
tion is  to  serve  as  tools  under  an  arrogant  and  hateful 
pack  of  aristocratic  leaders.  But  while  I  have  strength 
to  wield  a  pen,  my  nerve  shall  be  exerted  in  defence  of 
that  Union  which  was  purchased  with  blood.  Under 
the  mantle  of  freedom,  dark  assassins  of  our  National 
Constitution  are  endeavoring  to  insinuate  themselves 
into  the  temple  of  those  privileges,  our  rights  to  which 
were  secured  by  the  toil  of  our  fathers  and  sealed 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  99 

with  their  blood.  But  these  border  States  will  teach 
you  that  our  Constitution  is  not  built  upon  such  a 
sandy  foundation  as  to  be  shaken  and  demolished  with- 
out the  rotten  pillar  of  reputed  South  Carolina  ortho- 
doxy to  support  it. 

As  it  regards  your  Knoxville  letter-writer,  he  is  a 
liar  and  a  coward,  and  dare  not  give  his  name  to  the 
public.  My  neighbors,  without  distinction  of  parties, 
will  testify  that  he  is  a  liar.  Even  my  enemies — and 
I  have  some — will  testify  from  their  own  personal 
knowledge  that  he  is  a  liar.  I  do  not  believe,  for  one 
moment,  that  any  citizen  of  Knoxville  ever  wrote  any 
such  letter  to  South  Carolina.  You  have  been  duped  for 
once,  or  else  some  straggling  subject  of  your  contempt- 
ible Southern  Confederacy  has  passed  through  here 
and  sent  to  your  would-be  Republic  the  infinitely  in- 
fernal production  from  which  you  quote  your  six  pro- 
positions. 

I  would  as  soon  be  engaged  in  importing  the  plague 
from  the  East,  as  in  helping  to  build  up  a  Southern 
Confederacy  upon  the  ruins  of  the  American  Consti- 
tution. I  expect  to  be  abused  for  my  defence  of  the 
Union.  "  Tray,  Blanche,  and  Sweetheart"  will  all  bark 
at  me.  The  kennel  is  now  unloosed:  all  the  pack — 
from  the  deep-mouthed  bloodhound  of  South  Carolina 
and  Florida  to  the  growling  cur  of  Georgia — are  bay- 
ing at  me.  If  I  were  to  stop  to  throw  stones  at  all 
the  snarling  puppies  that  yelp  at  my  heels  in  South 


100  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

Carolina  and  elsewhere,  I  should  have  little  time  to  do 
any  thing  else. 

Your  first  falsehood,  as  gathered  from  a  Knoxville 
writer,  is  that  my  subscription  has  so  diminished  ol 
late  that  my  office  does  not  pay  expenses.  There  are 
twelve  newspapers  in  Ea?  t  Tennessee  besides  mine, 
and  I  have  more  paying  subscribers  than  all  of  them 
put  together.  I  have  the  largest  list  of  any  political 
paper  in  the  State ;  and  my  list  of  yearly  subscribers 
is  now  larger  than  it  ever  was  before, — increasing  now 
at  the  rate  of  two  hundred  per  week,  and  the  rise  of 
that.  So  much  for  my  prospects  of  starving  out. 

2.  But  my  town  and  county  have  cast  a  majority 
of  their  votes  for  Secession,  and  my  State  was  to  have 
done   so !     Well,  sir,  on   Saturday  last   our   election 
was  held,  and  a  full  vote  was  had  all  over  the  State, — 
the  issue  being  Union  or  Disunion.     In  my  town,  out 
of  a  vote  of  960  the  Secession  ticket  received  113,  and 
in  the  remainder  of  the  county  the  Secession  ticket 
received  about  100  votes,  leaving  the  Union  majority 
in  the  county  and  town  upwards  of  three  thousand ! 
In  the  State  at  large  the  Secession  ticket  is  so  badly 
beaten  as  to  be  absolutely  disgraced.     It   has   been 
"routed,  horse,  foot,  and  dragoon,"  the  Secessionists 
having  elected  only  about  half  a  dozen  members  to  the 
State  Convention ! 

3.  As  to  my  thirst  for  office,  I  simply  have  to  say 
that  I  never  declared  myself  for  office  in  my  life.     I 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  101 

have  been  frequently  urged  to  run,  but  declined.  There 
is  but  one  office  within  the  gift  of  my  State  that  I  would 
accept,  and  that  is  the  office  of  Governor;  and  1  am  not 
sure  that  I  will  not  run  for  this.  I  would  like  to  fill 
that  office  for  two  years,  in  order  to  meet  the  issues 
that  will  be  raised  by  the  seceding  States  and  traitors 
of  the  South;  and,  further,  to  take  the  State  Bank  and 
its  numerous  branches  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Secession- 
ists, who  now  have  them  in  charge. 

4.  I  am  indebted  to  no  stores  in  this  or  any  other 
town,  and  I  would  not  give  the  Kepublic  of  South  Caro- 
lina twenty-five  dollars  to  pay  all  my  store-debts  in  this 
world.     I  have  never  been  refused  credit  in  any  store 
here,  and  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  there  is  not  a  store 
in  this  city  but  would  be  willing  to  credit  me  for  more 
than  they  can  induce  me  to  purchase. 

5.  The  assertion  that  my  partisan  friends  refuse  to 
endorse  any  thing  I  say  is  simply  an  unmitigated  false- 
hood.    The  Secession  candidates  have  never  made  such 
an  issue,  and,  if  they  were  to,  they  would  be  promptly 
met  by  my  "partisan  friends."      As   it   regards  the 
sending  to  other  sections  of  the  State  for  papers  by  the 
common  people  of  my  county,  it  is  simply  a  lie.      I 
have,  to-day,  a  larger  list  of  subscribers  in  this  county 
than  any  paper  ever  had,  published  in  or  out  of  the 
county.     The  "  common  people"  are  with  me  in  senti- 
ment, and  the  recent  election  shows  that  in  this  large 
county,  voting  something  under  four  thousand  votes, 

9* 


102  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

only  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  of  them  refused  to 
endorse  my  "  doctrines"  at  the  ballot-box. 

6.  The  last  of  your  six  propositions  is  the  only  one 
that  contains  a  squinting  towards  the  truth,  and  it,  as 
a  whole,  is  basely  false.  There  are  a  few  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Methodist  Church  in  this  city,  Democrats 
and  Secessionists,  who  do  not  interchange  civilities  with 
me,  and  have,  for  aught  I  know  to  the  contrary,  no  sort 
of  respect  for  me.  If  these  entertain  more  profound 
contempt  for  me  than  I  do  for  them,  they  are  truly 
objects  of  pity.  And  if  the  great  body  of  the  "  common 
people,"  in  the  town  and  county,  have  no  more  respect 
for  me  and  my  "  doctrines"  than  they  have  for  these 
Methodist  brethren  of  mine,  I  would  leave  the  country, 
and  settle  where  I  could  find  persons  agreeing  with 
me  in  "  doctrines."  Upon  these  persons,  wanting  in 
respect  for  me  as  they  are,  I  have  'no  disposition  to 
make  war.  The  alarming  and  wasteful  disease  of  Dis- 
union is  now  raging  among  them  and  prostrating  its 
victims.  If  their  symptoms  .grow  worse,  and  the 
disease  continue  to  spread,  I  may,  through  compas- 
sion, convert  the  basement  of  my  office  into  a  hos- 
pital for  the  afflicted !  Already  their  elongated  faces 
evince  to  the  passers-by  that  they  have  passed  the 
Eubicon ! 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  inform  you,  Mr.  Cinclair, 
that  in  Tennessee  the  heresy  of  Secession,  sick  with 
contradiction  and  crazed  with  a  superabundance  of 


AMONG    THE   REBELS.  103 

inconsistency,  is  flying  to  falsehood  as  a  remedy,  and 
expiring  from  the  venom  of  its  own  fangs.  The  night 
of  TREASON  has  passed  away  in  Tennessee ;  the  purple 
morn  of  PATRIOTISM  has  dawned.  Already  do  the  tints 
of  truth  appear,  while  the  gloomy  mists  rising  from  the 
swamps  of  a  polluted  Southern  Confederacy  fade  in  the 
distance,  and  sink  below  the  horizon  to  rise  no  more ! 
A  cloudless  day  is  breaking  around  us  in  Tennessee ; 
emerging  from  the  ocean  of  the  UNION,  the  sun  of  Ame- 
rican liberty  is  rising  along  the  whole  line  of  the  border 
States,  refulgent  in  light,  brilliant  with  patriotism,  and 
resplendent  in  glory !  The  hallowed  name  of  the  AME- 
RICAN UNION,  more  fragrant  than  the  spicy  gales  of 
Arabia,  more  balmy  than  Gilead's  air,  thrills  the 
bosom  of  the  patriot,  where  despair  once  revelled,  and 
whispers  good  tidings  for  all  lovers  of  the  Union! 
Trophies  of  victory,  in  smiles  and  peace,  deck  the 
brows  of  those  who  were  once  saddened  with  doubt 
and  uncertainty  and  sunk  with  sorrows  to  the  depth 
of  hell. 

Parent  of  good,  these  are  thy  works  !  Thou  art  the 
great  mover  in  the  minds  of  deluded  and  distracted 
men,  and  wilt  turn  them  "  as  the  rivers  are  turned," 
until  they  shall  see  thy  glory,  bask  in  the  sunshine  of 
our  national  prosperity,  and  drink  living  waters  at  the 
wells  of  American  salvation  ! 

Finally,  sir,  when  you  put  forth  your  batch  of  vil- 
lainous falsehoods,  through  the  brawling  Jacobin  jour- 


104  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

nals  of  a  demoralized  Southern  Confederacy,  have  the 
candor  and  charity  to  accompany  them  with  this  reply, 
and  I  will  remain  the  defiant  opponent  of  a  wilful  and 
despicable  South  Carolina  rascal ! 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Feb.  16, 1861. 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  105 


CHAPTER  VII. 

POSITION    OF    BORDER-STATE    UNION    MEN — THE    AUTHOR'S    VIEWS    OF 
SLAVERY    GIVEN     BY     REQUEST — BLOW    UPON    FORT    SUMTER    STRUCK 

WITH     A    VIEW     TO     FORCE    VIRGINIA     TO     SECEDE NORTHERN     ANI1 

SOUTHERN     CLERGY REIGN    OF    TERROR    IN    THE    SOUTH VIRGINIA 

STATESMEN  ALL  DEAD FOR  THE  UNION  UNDER  ALL  CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Position  of  Union  Men, 

THE  following  correspondence  will  explain  itself. 
We  will  only  say  that  the  writer  of  the  letter  from 
Albany  resides  in  the  city  of  New  York,  is  a  Mary- 
lander  by  birth,  and  was  a  Breckinridge  Democrat  in 
the  late  Presidential  election  : — 

"ALBANY,  N.Y.,  May  8,  1861. 

"W.  Gr.  BROWNLOW,  Esq.: — 

"  I  send  you  by  mail  the  Albany  Evening  Journal^ 
containing  Hon.  Benj.  Nott's  speech  on  the  crisis. 
Judge  Nott  is  a  life-long  Democrat,  of  the  Hard- Shell 
school,  and  an  avowed  advocate  of  the  Dred  Scott 
decision. 

"I  read  your  paper  with  great  interest,  and  your 
course  is  the  subject  of  conversation  in  every  circle  North, 
meeting  the  approval  of  all  parties,  for  all  parties  here 
are  for  the  Union.  We  understand  you  to  be  a  pro- 


106  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Slavery  man,  but  for  the  Union,  opposed  to  Secession, 
— not  even  regarding  the  election  of  Lincoln  as  any 
just  cause  for  dissolving  the  Union.  Can't  you  give 
us  a  leading  editorial  on  these  points,  and  at  the  same 
time  state  the  position  of  the  Union  men  in  the  border 
Slave  States  in  the  event  the  Administration  were  to 
interfere  in  any  way  with  the  institution  of  slavery  ? 

"  The  masses  of  the  Northern  people  have  no  feelings 
but  the  most  friendly  towards  their  brethren  of  the 
South,  and  are  ready  to  concede  to  them  all  their  rights. 
They  are  even  for  returning  to  them  their  slaves  who 
have  escaped,  as  the  law  requires.  This  Administration 
would  protect  Southern  rights,  and  if  it  would  not  of 
choice,  the  public  would  require  it  to  be  done.  And,  in 
saying  this,  I  assure  you  I  am  no  Lincoln  man.  But 
this  you  very  well  know. 

"  Hoping  that  you  may  be  sustained,  and  live  to  see 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  float  on  every  hill-top,  and  in 
every  valley,  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Kio  Grande, 
I  remain,  very  truly,  L.  M.  E." 

KNOXVILLE,  May  14,  1861. 

To  L.  M.  E.  :— 

I  have  your  letter  of  the  8th,  and  also  the  Evening 
Journal.  I  have  perused  the  speech  of  Judge  Nott : 
it  is  able,  conservative,  and  eminently  patriotic.  Had 
you  more  Notts  in  the  North,  and  fewer  Slavery  agi- 
tators, and  had  we  fewer  Ehetts,  Yanceys,  and  Davises, 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  107 

in  the  South,  none  of  these  troubles  would  now  be  upon 
the  country. 

You  correctly  interpret  the  Union  men  of  the  border 
Slave  States  when  you  pronounce  them  "pro-Slavery 
men."  I  think  I  correctly  represent  them  in  my  paper, 
as  I  shall  do  in  this  brief  epistle,  except,  perhaps,  that 
I  am  more  ultra  than  most  of  them.  I  am  a  native 
of  Virginia,  and  so  were  my  parents  before  me,  and, 
together  with  a  numerous  train  of  relatives,  they  were 
and  are  slave-holders.  For  thirty  years  I  have  lived 
in  Tennessee,  and  my  wife  and  children  are  native  Ten- 
nesseeans.  My  native  State  did  more  to  form  the  old 
Confederacy  and  to  form  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  than  any  other  State ;  her  soil  is  now  the  rest- 
ing-place of  the  honored  dead,  the  most  ultra  old 
Unionists  dead  or  alive, — Washington,  Jefferson,  Madi- 
son, Monroe,  Marshall,  Henry,  and  a  host  of  others. 
I  am  sorry  to  have  to  record  that  it  has,  in  the  myste- 
rious providence  of  God,  been  reserved  to  Virginia  to 
do  more  towards  overthrowing  the  Confederacy  and  the 
Constitution  than  any  other  State,  South  Carolina  not 
even  excepted.  It  took  the  Virginia  Convention  of 
1861  to  overthrow  her  State  Government, — changing 
her  organic  political  status  contrary  to  the  expressed 
direction  of  her  people  at  the  ballot-box  when  they 
elected  the  men  who  perpetrated  the  deed  !  Virginia, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  if  I  may  be  allowed  to  use  an  humble 
illustration,  is  like  a  hill  of  potatoes, — the  best  part  under 


108  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

ground:  the  part  above  ground  reminds  me  but  of 
vines.  When  citizens  of  other  States  are  called  upon 
to  name  their  great  statesmen,  they  point  to  living  men. 
Make  the  call  upon  Virginians,  and  they  ask  you  out 
into  a  graveyard,  when  they  will  point  you  to  the  tomb 
of  Washington,  the  monument  erected  over  Madison, 
or  the  grave  of  Jefferson  ! 

I  am  a  pro- Slavery  man,  and  so  are  the  Union  men 
generally  of  the  border  Slave  States.  I  have  long 
since  made  up  my  mind  upon  the  Slavery  question,  but 
not  without  studying  it  thoroughly.  The  result  of  my 
investigation  is,  that  there  is  not  a  single  passage  in 
the  New  Testament,  nor  a  single  act  in  the  records  of 
the  Church,  during  her  early  history  even  for  centu- 
ries, containing  any  direct,  professed,  or  intended  cen- 
sure of  slavery.  Christ  and  the  apostles  found  the 
institution  existing  under  the  authority  and  sanction 
of  law;  and  in  their  labors  among  the  people,  unlike 
ultra  Abolitionists,  masters  and  slaves  bowed  at  the 
same  altars,  and  were  taken  into  the  same  Church, 
communing  together  around  the  same  table, — the 
Saviour  and  his  apostles  exhorting  owners  to  treat 
slaves  as  became  the  gospel,  and  slaves  to  obedience 
and  honesty,  that  their  religious  profession  might  not 
be  evil  spoken  of. 

The  original  Church  of  Christ  not  only  admitted  the 
lawfulness  of  slavery,  but  in  various  ways,  by  her  teach- 
ings and  discipline,  expressed  her  approbation  of  it, 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  109 

enforcing  the  observance  of  "Fugitive  Sla^e  Laws" 
which  had  been  enacted  by  the  State.  God  intended 
the  relation  of  master  and  slave  to  exist,  both  in  and 
out  of  his  Church.  Hence,  when  Christ  and  his  apos- 
tles found  slavery  incorporated  with  every  department 
of  society,  they  went  to  work  and  adopted  rules  for  the 
government  of  the  Church  providing  alike  for  the  rights 
of  slave-holders  and  the  wants  of  slaves.  Slavery  in 
the  days  of  the  apostles  had  so  penetrated  society,  and 
was  so  intimately  interwoven  with  it,  that  a  religion 
preaching  freedom  to  the  slaves  would  have  arrayed 
against  it  the  civil  authorities,  armed  against  it  the 
whole  power  of  the  State,  and  destroyed  the  usefulness 
of  its  preachers. 

Finally,  I  hold — and  thirty  years  of  observation  and 
experience  among  slave-holders  in  the  South  have  con- 
vinced me  that  I  am  not  mistaken — that  all  the  finer 
feelings  of  humanity  may  be  cherished  in  the  bosoms  of 
slave-owners ;  that  there  are  thousands  of  devout  slave- 
owners and  slaves  in  the  South  who  are  acceptable  to 
God,  through  Christ.  And,  however  much  the  bonds 
of  the  slaves  of  the  South  may  provoke  the  wrath  of 
the  ultra  Abolitionists  of  the  North,  the  Redeemer  of 
the  world  smiles  alike  upon  the  devout  master  and 
the  pious  slave ! 

Now,  sir,  allow  me  further  to  say  that  the  Union 
men  of  the  border  Slave  States  are  loyal  to  their 
Government,  and  do  not  regard  the  election  of  Lincoln 

10 


110  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

as  any  just  cause  for  dissolving  this  Union.  We 
oelieve  that  slavery  had  very  little  to  do  with  inaugu- 
rating armed  secession,  which  commenced  at  Charles- 
ton, to  overthrow  the  United  States  Government :  it 
was  the  loss  of  the  offices,  power,  and  patronage  of  the 
Government  by  corrupt  politicians  and  bad  men  in 
the  South,  who  had  long  controlled  the  Government. 
Believing  this,  as  we  honestly  do,  we  can  never,  like 
Mexico,  inaugurate  political  conflicts  and  anarchy  by 
armed  secession.  We  can  never  agree  to  assist  in  the 
inauguration  of  a  Government  of  conventions  by  armed 
secession, — which  Government,  in  the  case  of  England 
and  her  Bump  Parliament,  resulted  in  the  Protectorate 
of  Cromwell,  and  in  France,  in  the  military  despotism 
of  Bonaparte,  and  in  both  cases  resulted  in  anarchy, 
as  it  is  bound  to  do  in  this  country  if  not  put  down  by 
the  power  of  the  Government. 

Whilst  I  say  this,  let  me  say,  in  all  candor,  that  if 
we  were  once  convinced  in  the  border  Slave  States 
that  the  Administration  at  Washington,  and  the  people 
of  the  North  who  are  backing  up  the  Administration 
with  men  and  money,  contemplated  the  subjugation 
of  the  South  or  the  abolishing  of  slavery,  there  would 
not  be  a  Union  man  among  us  in  twenty-four  hours. 
Come  what  might,  sink  or  swim,  survive  or  perish,  we 
would  fight  you  to  the  death,  and  we  would  unite  our 
fortunes  and  destinies  with  even  these  demoralized 
seceded  States,  for  whose  leaders  and  laws  we  have 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  Ill 

no  sort  of  respect.  But  we  have  not  believed,  nor 
do  we  yet  believe,  that  the  Administration  has  such 
purposes  in  view.  Demagogues  and  designing  men 
charge  it  here,  and  by  this  means  enlist  thousands 
under  their  banner  who,  otherwise,  would  never  support 
their  wicked  schemes  of  Secession.  We  Union  men 
believe  that  the  blow  was  struck  upon  Fort  Sumter 
to  induce  Virginia  to  go  out,  and  to  create  sympathy 
elsewhere,  and  that  the  Administration  at  Washington 
is  seeking  to  repossess  its  forts  and  property  and  to 
preserve  its  existence ;  and,  as  long  as  we  believe  this, 
we  are  for  the  Union  and  the  Administration.  I,  of 
course,  speak  for  Union  men  in  the  general.  We  are 
sustained  in  this  by  the  Mobile  Advertiser,  which 
glories  in  the  fact  that  the  seven  Confederated  States 
"struck  the  first  blow  in  the  conflict,"  and  "  threw  down 
the  glove  of  mortal  combat  to  their  powerful  foe.'1 
The  Mobile  organ  of  Secession  adds,  "  It  was  plucky 
in  the  seven  Confederates :  it  was  more, — it  was  sub- 
limely courageous  and  patriotic." 

Allow  me  to  say  that  the  curse  of  the  country  has 
been  that,  for  years,  north  of  Mason  &  Dixon's  line, 
you  have  kept  pulpits  open  to  the  abuse  of  Southern 
slavery  and  of  the  Southern  people. 

In  like  manner,  the  clergy  of  the  South, — without 
distinction  of  sects, — men  of  talents,  learning,  and 
influence, — have  raised  the  howl  of  Secession,  and  it 
falls  like  an  Indian  war-cry  upon  our  citizens  from 


112  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

their  prostituted  pulpits  every  Sabbath.  Many  of  them 
go  so  far  as  to  petition  their  God,  in  their  public 
prayers,  to  blast  the  people  of  the  North !  I  have  no 
idea  that  a  God  of  peace  will  answer  any  such  blas- 
phemous supplications  ;  but  it  shows  the  spirit  of  these 
minions  of  anarchy,  who  have  sworn  allegiance  to  the 
kingdom  of  Davis,  and  have  been  released  from  any 
further  obligations  to  the  kingdom  of  Jesus, — at  least 
during  the  war!  Some  of  our  clergy  are  officers  in 
volunteer  companies,  with  swords  hung  to  their  sides, 
and  stripes  on  their  pants.  Others,  having  an  eye  to 
the  loaves  and  fishes,  are  anxious  to  serve  as  chaplains. 
We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  reign  of  terror  in  Ten- 
nessee, and  where  it  will  end,  and  in  what,  I  am  not 
able  to  conjecture.  We  vote  for  or  against  the  Ordi- 
nance of  Secession  on  the  8th  of  June ;  and,  although 
there  is  a  majority  of  the  voters  of  the  State  utterly 
and  irreconcilably  opposed  to  Secession,  I  can't  promise 
you  that  it  will  not  carry.  Fraud  and  force,  and  all 
the  other  appliances  of  Secessionism,  will  be  brought 
to  bear  in  carrying  the  State  out  of  the  Union.  When 
overpowered  and  voted  down,  we  shall  be  forced  to 
submit.  When  I  surrender,  it  will  be  because  I  can 
no  longer  help  myself;  but  it  shall  be  under  protest, 
claiming  the  right,  as  a  Union  man,  to  curse  this  whole 
movement  in  my  heart  of  hearts  !  And,  whether  in  or 
out  of  the  Union,  as  long  as  I  remember  it  was  Wash- 
ington who  told  us,  "  The  Constitution  is  sacredly 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  113 

obligatory  upon  all;'  and  that  it  was  Jackson  who  told 
us,  "  The,  Union,  it  must  be  preserved,'1 — I  shall  offer 
this  prayer  upon  the  altar  of  my  country  :  Mania  to 
the  brain  of  him  who  would  conceive,  and  palsy  to  the 
arm  of  him  who  would  perpetrate,  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union ! 

And,  whether  my  humble  voice  is  hushed  in  death, 
or  my  press  is  muzzled  by  foul  legislation,  I  beg  you, 
and  all  into  whose  hands  this  letter  may  fall,  to  credit 
no  Secession  falsehood  which  may  represent  me  as 
having  changed. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxvillo  "Whig,  May  18,  1861. 


114  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

THE  GREAT  ENEMY  OF  THE  COTTON  STATES — NOT  AN  ABOLITIONIST — 
OUR  SYMPATHIES  WITH  THE  GOVERNMENT — THE  REBELLION  ORIGIN- 
ATED WITH  THE  SOUTH CHARGE  OF  SEEKING  TO  SUBJUGATE  THE 

SOUTH  A  FALSE  ISSUE — THE  KNOXVILLE  WHIG  REFUSING  TO  LIE 
AND  BOAST  FOR  THE  TRAITORS — NOT  LOOKING  TO  REWARD  IN 
DOLLARS  AND  CENTS — STANDING  OR  FALLING  UPON  A  PLATFORM 
OF  PRINCIPLES  ! 

Doctors  will  Differ, 

THE  following  correspondence  will  explain  itself. 
We  take  the  writer  of  the  letter  to  us  to  be  a  clever 
man  carried  astray  upon  the  Secession  wave  that  has 
swept  over  the  land,  blinding  the  eyes  of  honest  men 
to  all  sense  of  duty,  and  burying  beneath  it  the  last 
remnant  of  the  privileges  of  the  Constitution : — 


"  CEDAR  GROVE,  FLA.,  June  15,  1861. 

"  DR.  BROWNLOW  : — 

"  As  a  freeman,  you  have  a  right  to  your  opinions, 
in  common  with  other  men,  but,  sir,  you  have  no  right 
to  defame  those  who  are  laboring  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Northern  oppression.  I  have  ever  been  an 
admirer  of  yours,  and  of  your  principles ;  but  permit 
me  to  tell  you  this  morning  that  you  are  doing  more 
injury  to  the  Cotton  States  than  any  of  the  Greeleys  or 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  115 

Webbs  of  Yankeedom.  I  do  not  believe  you  to  be  an 
Abolitionist,  as  some  do  in  this  quarter.  These  being 
my  honest  opinions,  I  do  not  wish  to  read  your  paper 
longer.  If  there  be  any  thing  due  me  on  my  subscrip- 
tion, I  wish  it  applied  to  the  family  of  Jackson  the 
martyr.  Very  truly,  &c., 

"B.  M.  SCARBOROUGH." 

KNOXVILLE,  June  25,  1861. 

MR.  SCARBOROUGH  : — 

I  received  your  letter  of  the  15th  only  on  yesterday, 
and  I  hasten  to  reply  very  briefly.  Upon  examination, 
1  find  thirty  cents  due  you  on  my  book,  and  I  enclose 
you  the  amount  in  United  States  stamps,  which  you 
can  transmit  to  "  the  family  of  Jackson  the  martyr," 
who  can  use  them  in  their  locality. 

You  are  correct  in  supposing  me  free  from  the  taint 
of  Abolitionism.  I  have  fought  the  agitators  of  the 
Slavery  question  at  the  North  for  the  last  two-and- 
twenty  years,  during  which  time  I  have  edited  a  Whig 
paper  in  Tennessee.  With  my  Government,  and  its 
Constitution  and  laws,  I  intend  to  stand  or  fall, 
having  no  regard  to  who  may  be  President  for  the 
time  being.  This  rebellion  is  utterly  without  cause. 
Nothing  but  force  will  put  it  down ;  and  hence  there 
never  was  a  more  necessary,  just,  and  lawful  war 
than  this,  to  preserve  a  necessary,  just,  and  noble 
Government  against  inexcusable,  unnatural,  and  vil- 


116  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

lainous  rebellion.  This  rebellion,  on  the  part  of  the 
South,  originated  in  falsehood,  fraud,  and  perjury,  and 
the  men  who  inaugurated  it,  and  are  now  at  its  head, 
are  as  bad  men  as  ever  agitated  the  Slavery  question 
in  New  England,  or  any  who  suffer  the  vengeance 
of  eternal  fire  for  having  flagrantly  violated  God's 
law  through  a  long  and  eventful  life  of  wickedness ! 
Knowing  this,  or  rather  believing  it,  as  I  honestly  do, 
I  can  have  no  sympathy  with  the  men  in  the  South 
who  have  brought  about  this  war  and  are  urging  it 
on.  No  mad-dog  cry  of  the  invasion  of  the  sacred  soil 
of  the  South  by  the  Vandals  of  the  North  can  blind 
my  eyes  to  the  facts  in  the  case,  or  shift  the  respon- 
sibilities of  its  origin  upon  those  who  are  fighting  to 
preserve  the  Government.  Men  need  not  talk  to  me 
about  the  unnatural,  fratricidal,  and  horrible  war  Lin- 
coln is  waging!  Why  is  it  unnatural?  I  think  it 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  for  a  nation  to 
fight  for  its  Government  against  a  vile  rebellion  which 
has  never  yet  been  able  to  allege  an  excuse.  That  any 
portion  of  the  people  should  stand  aloof  from  such  a 
cause,  is  indeed  unnatural,  but  that  does  not  make  the 
war  unnatural. 

That  any  people  should  rebel  against  so  benign  a 
Government,  and  make  war  upon  it,  is  most  unnatural. 
It  is  the  greatest  crime  that  could  be  committed 
against  humanity,  for  it  and  its  consequences  include 
all  other  crimes.  It  was  not  the  falsely-alleged  Sla- 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  11-' 

very  question  that  excited  the  Cotton  States  to  tht- 
fatal  point,  and  brought  about  their  acts  of  seces- 
sion. It  was  because  they  lost  the  race  for  the 
Presidency,  and  with  it  the  spoils  and  power  of  a 
Government  they  had  been  plundering  and  living  off  of 
for  years.  Hence,  it  was  only  when  the  Government 
changed  hands,  and,  in  the  legitimate  exercise  of  its 
lawful  powers,  resorted  to  the  only  means  that  would 
preserve  it  and  a  vestige  of  liberty  to  the  American 
people,  that  the  war  became  unnatural,  fratricidal,  and 
horrible  to  the  advocates  of  a  Southern  Confederacy. 
Southern-Eights  politicians  and  hypocritical  clergy- 
men may  ejaculate  that  their  heads  may  be  made 
water,  and  their  eyes  fountains  of  tears,  that  they  may 
weep  day  and  night  over  the  unnatural  war  of  the  best 
Government  that  has  ever  existed,  against  the  most 
villainous  rebellion  that  history  gives  any  account  of, 
and  they  can  never  excite  my  sympathies  but  in  favor 
of  the  Government. 

The  Secessionists,  for  the  purpose  of  hiding  their 
traitorous  course,  create  a  false  issue  before  the  people. 
They  assert  that  the  effort  to  preserve  the  Government 
is  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  North  to  crush  the 
South,  and  that  a  sectional  fight  is  the  real  issue  before 
the  people.  This  attempt  to  create  a  false  issue  is  an 
acknowledgment  on  their  part  that  they  dare  not  meet 
the  true  one.  The  effort  to  enforce  the  law  is  not  a 
fight  against  the  South,  but  it  is  a  fight  against  the 


118  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

traitors  to  the  General  Government ;  and,  whether  they 
appear  North  or  South,  it  is  tho  duty  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  crush  the  treason.  When  Southern  traitors 
resist  the  laws  of  the  land,  they  call  all  attempts  on  the 
part  of  the  Administration  to  enforce  those  laws,  out- 
rageous acts  of  oppression, — attempts  to  invade  and 
subjugate  the  free  and  independent  people  of  fifteen 
sovereign  States.  Rebellion  with  this  class  of  men  is 
liberty,  whilst  they  denounce  all  attempts  to  execute 
the  laws  of  the  land  as  the  essence  of  despotism.  To 
such  subterfuges  are  Secessionists  driven  to  sustain 
the  rebellious  course  they  have  entered  upon  under  a 
Southern  Confederacy. 

For  daring  to  oppose  Secession,  the  chivalry  of 
my  own  section  have  denounced  me  in  unmeasured 
terms,  and  declared  me  less  sane  than  the  inmates 
of  Bedlam.  And  because  I  have  refused  to  lavish 
volumes  of  whimsical  abuse  upon  the  North  for  their 
defence  of  the  National  Government,  I  have  been 
pelted  with  a  most  horrible  bombardment  of  uncleanly 
epithets  by  the  veracious  chroniclers  who  control  the 
pensioned  press  of  the  South.  The  complaint  against 
me  is,  that  my  paper  has  not  teemed  with  bragging 
and  fantastical  lies  about  the  origin  of  this  war,  and 
the  ability  of  one  Southern  soldier  to  whip  five  Yan- 
kees. I  have  been  even  required  by  my  Southern  sub- 
scribers to  declare,  upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  of  every 
engagement  by  scouting-parties,  that  the  Yankees 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  119 

took  to  their  heels,  and  that  soon  the  Southern  troops 
would  have  the  Yankees  harnessed  tandem-fashion, 
and  with  their  own  hands  conveying  them  back  to 
their  Southern  plantations  in  a  Broadway  omnibus! 
I  have  been  expected  to  state  in  every  issue  of  my 
paper,  that  the  mantle  of  Washington  sits  well  on  Jeff 
Davis !  This  would  be  a  funny  publication.  The  bow 
of  Ulysses  in  the  hands  of  a  pigmy !  The  robes  of  the 
giant  adorning  Tom  Thumb  !  The  curls  of  a  Hyperion 
on  the  brow  of  a  Satyr !  The  Aurora  Borealis  of  a 
cotton  farm  melting  down  the  icy  North !  This  would 
be  to  metamorphose  a  minnow  into  a  WHALE  ! 

I  never  look  through  telescopes  made  of  cotton-stalks, 
and  hence  I  never  make  these  ridiculous  discoveries. 
And  I  tell  the  misguided  men  of  the  South,  who  have 
been  laboring  to  make  a  demi-god  of  Davis,  to  unde- 
ceive themselves,  and  look  at  men  "as  trees  walking." 
Look  at  battles  as  they  occur,  and  at  chances  as  they 
are.  The  deception  they  are  imposing  upon  the  honest 
masses  is  only  temporary.  It  will  become  more  and 
more  apparent,  as  their  humbugged  victims  draw  near 
to  the  sober  realities  of  a  war  which  must  terminate 
fatally  for  the  interests  of  the  South. 

I  assure  you,  my  dear  sir,  that  I  am  honest  in  my 
convictions  of  right,  and  that  in  advocating  my  Govern- 
ment I  am  not  looking  to  a  reward  in  dollars  and 
cents.  Indeed,  I  am  a  loser  by  my  course,  as  I  knew  I 
would  be;  but  I  feel  tranquil  under  losses  incurred  in 


120  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPEEIENCES 

the  manly  defence  of  PEINQIPLES.  I  shall  look  on  the 
progress  of  affairs .  with  as  much  interest  as  any  one 
man  in  the  country.  If  the  Federal  Government  pre- 
vails, it  will  prove  that  the  Union  was  a  nationality; 
if  the  Cotton  States  make  good  their  independence,  it 
will  prove  that  the  Union  was  a  partnership  during 
pleasure.  In  other  words,  if  we  have  a  Government,  I 
want  to  know  it ;  and  this  war  will  determine  the  issue. 
I  am;  sir,  very  truly, 

W.  G.  BEOWNLOW. 

Knoxville  Whig,  June  29,  1861. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  121 


CHAPTER  IX. 

BECESSION  FORGERIES  AT  KNOXVILLE — ATTEMPT  TO  DESTROY  SENATOR 
JOHNSON,  AND  TO  EMBEZZLE  MONEY  FROM  AMOS  A.  LAWRBNCE— THE 
GUILTY  PARTIES  DETECTED — A  WARNING  TO  ALL  FUTURE  CON- 
SPIRATORS. 

SENATOR  JOHNSON  lias  at  length  captured  the  hell- 
hounds, letter-forgers,  and  thieves,  at  Knoxville,  who 
have  been  seeking  his  ruin  by  means  as  foul  as  the 
parties  are  corrupt,  and  as  wicked  as  the  deeds  of  the 
infernal  regions.  Let  the  people  of  Tennessee  ponder 
over  this  worse  than  "Gunpowder  Plot,"  this  dark  and 
damning  attempt  to  have  a  Senator  assassinated,  and 
ask  themselves  if  the  guilty  perpetrators  of  the  forgery 
and  attempt  at  theft  do  not  merit  the  vengeance  of 
eternal  fire.  Ought  such  traitors,  slanderers,  thieves, 
and  assassins  be  allowed  to  live  longer  in  any  com- 
munity ?  Never  before  have  we  been  brought  to  witness 
such  perfidy,  malice,  and  corruption  on  the  part  of  any 
clique  as  is  now  proven  upon  the  Secession  clique  in 
Knoxville,  who  are  concerned  in  this  disgraceful,  hell- 
born,  and  hell-bound  expedition  against  the  reputation 
and  life  of  Andrew  Johnson, 

We  here  insert  the  letters  forged,  and  remarks  of 
11 


122 

Governor  Johnson  just  as  he  has  published  them,  and 
to  the  whole  we  annex  a  few  paragraphs  which  will 
throw  some  further  light  upon  this  most  infamous 
transaction. 

"  BOSTON,  May  18. 

"DEAR  SIR: — If  your  note  to  me  were  printed  in  our 
newspapers,  it  would  be  good  for  ten  thousand  dollars 
in  three  days'  time.  But,  of  course,  I  must  only  use  it 
as  a  private  letter. 

"  In  order  that  you  may  be  sure  of  something  at  once, 
I  write  below  this  a  draft,  which  some  of  your  Union 
bankers  or  merchants  may  be  willing  to  cash  at  the 
usual  premium  for  East  exchange.  Probably  Gardner 
&  Co.,  Evans  &  Co.,  Douglas  &  Co.;  of  Nashville,  will 
know  it. 

"The  Government  will  soon  exhibit  a  power  which 
will  astonish  even  you.  The  Nullifiers  have  been  play- 
ing into  Scott's  hand  for  three  weeks,  and  now  they 
have  lost  the  game. 

"Yours,  with  regard, 

"Anos  A.  LAWRENCE. 

"If  you  cannot  use  the  draft,  return  it,  and  tell  me 
what  to  send. 

"BOSTON,  May  18,  1861. 

"At  sight,  without  grace,  pay  to  Andrew  Johnson,  or 
order,  one  thousand  dollars,  for  value  received,  and 

charge  to  my  account. 

"AMOS  A.  LAWRENCE. 

"To  MASON,  LAWRENCE  &  Co.,  Boston. 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  123 

"Across  the  face  of  the  draft  is  the  acceptance  of 
Mason,  Lawrence  &  Co. 

"  ISTo  one,  I  am  sure,  could  have  been  more  surprised 
than  I  at  the  appearance  of  the  above  article.  As  I 
had  never  written  to  Amos  A.  Lawrence,  Esq.,  upon 
the  subject  of  East  Tennessee  affairs  with  the  view  of 
obtaining  either  money  or  other  material  aid,  I  saw  at 
a  glance  that  forgery,  fraud,  and  robbery  of  the  mails 
formed  the  basis  of  this  mendacious  article,  and  I  there- 
fore wrote  to  Mr.  Lawrence,  (the  fast  and  only  letter 
ever  written  by  me  to  Mr.  L.  upon  any  subject  what- 
ever,} requesting  him  to  forward  to  me  the  original 
letter  or  letters  upon  which  his  draft  had  been  predi- 
cated. 

"I  have  just  received  his  reply  thereto,  in  which  he 
expresses  his  regret  at  the  deception  practised,  and 
encloses  two  letters  purporting  to  have  been  written 
by  me,  as  follows  : — 

"  [Private.]  KNOXVILLE,  TENK.,  May  15,  1861. 

"AMOS  A.  LAWRENCE,  ESQ.,  NEAR  BOSTON,  MASS. 

"DEAR  SIR: — I  received  your  kind  favor  on  yester- 
day, and  hasten  to  reply. 

"Thank  you  for  the  high  regard  you  seem  to  have  for 
my  patriotism  and  my  devotion  to  my  country. 

"What  assurances  can  I  have  from  you  and  your 
people  of  material  aid  in  the  way  of  money,  men,  and 
arms,  if  I  can  succeed  in  arousing  my  people  to  resist- 


124  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

ance  to  this  damnable  treason  in  the  South?  This  is 
very  important.  We  have  a  formidable  Union  element 
in  East  Tennessee,  which  can  be  judiciously  managed  if 
we  can  obtain  the  aid  alluded  to.  Harris,  Governor  of 
this  State,  will  not  let  us  have  arms  nor  money :  there- 
fore we  must  appeal  to  you.  Let  me  hear  from  you 
forthwith. 

"Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

"KNOXYILLE,  TENS.,  June  6,  1861. 

"AMOS  A.  LAWRENCE,  ESQ.,  NEAR  BOSTON,  MASS. 

"My  DEAR  SIR: — I  have  received  your  two  letters  to- 
day. Thank  you  most  sincerely  for  your  proffered  aid. 
We  need  it, — need  it  badly.  As  yet  I  have  not  been 
able  to  use  your  draft ;  I  am  afraid  to  do  so.  Send  me, 
if  you  can,  $5000  or  $10,000  in  New  England  cur- 
rency, in  large  bills,  by  mail,  via  Cincinnati.  Be  sure 
to  do  it  promptly.  Don't  delay.  I  can  now  purchase 
a  lot  of  arms  if  I  had  the  means. 

"  How  do  you  propose  to  introduce  aid  or  arms  into 
East  Tennessee  ?  By  what  route,  and  by  what  method  ? 
Answer  soon. 

"  Eespectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

"I  pronounce  both  of  the  above  letters  deliberate, 
wilful,  and  unmitigated  forgeries,  perpetrated,  no  doubt, 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  125 

with  the  view  not  only  of  injuring  me;  but  of  damaging 
the  Union  party  of  Tennessee,  by  connecting  me  with 
Northern  men  and  Northern  means  in  a  manner  sup- 
posed to  be  obnoxious  to  the  noble  patriots  of  my  own 
State. 

"The  letter  of  the  15th  ultimo,  it  seems,  is  the  private 
letter  to  which  Mr.  Lawrence  refers  in  his  letter  as 
published  in  the  Enquirer,  and  upon  which  the  draft 
was  drawn.  This  is  the  first  forgery. 

"The  letter  of  the  6th  instant  clearly  shows  that  the 
draft — which  could  not  be  made  available,  so  palpable 
was  the  fraud — was  to  be  retained  and  used  in  the 
work  of  injuring  me  just  as  circumstances  might  favor; 
while  the  call  for  '$5000  or  $10,000  in  New  England 
currency,  in  large  bills,'  if  responded  to,  would  have 
served  individual  purposes,  and,  I  doubt  not,  would 
have  been  unhesitatingly  used  therefor.  To  make  this 
fraud  and  bold  attempt  at  robbery  still  more  conclusive, 
I  will  state  the  fact  that,  on  the  15th  of  May,  the  date 
of  the  first  letter,  I  was  present  at  and  addressed  a 
large  Union  meeting  in  Elizabethton,  one  hundred  and 
eighteen  miles  from  Knoxville,  where  the  above  letters 
were  written  and  mailed;  and  on  the  6th  of  June,  the 
date  of  the  second  letter,  I  was  filling  one  of  a  series 
of  appointments  at  Montgomery,  about  forty  miles  west 
of  Knoxville.  This  town  of  Knoxville,  let  it  be  re- 
membered, is  about  seventy-five  miles  distant  from 
Greeneville,  my  post-office  address.  I  will  add,  further, 

11* 


126  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

that  there  is  not,  either  in  the  body  of  the  letters  or 
the  signature  thereto,  the  slightest  similarity  to  my 
handwriting  or  signature. 

"  It  would  have  been  impossible  for  such  a  fraudulent 
and  mail-robbing  transaction  to  have  been  carried  out 
in  the  post-office  at  Knoxville  without  the  knowledge 
or  consent  of  the  postmaster,  and  he  and  his  confede- 
rates must  be  held  responsible  for  it  by  an  enlightened 
public  judgment.  Time  may  develop  all  the  facts  con- 
nected with  this  and  other  transactions  of  a  similar 
character  perpetrated  at  this  same  post-office. 

"  I  have  not  made  this  statement  of  facts  for  the  pur- 
pose of  exonerating  myself  from  the  charge  of  treachery, 
treason,  and  corruption  based  upon  the  publication  of 
the  Eichmond  Enquirer,  for  I  feel  that  I  stand  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  shafts  of  calumny  and  defamation; 
but  my  object  is  to  expose  the  dishonorable  and  wicked 
means  resorted  to  by  '  Secession'  to  carry  out  its 
nefarious  and  corrupt  designs  in  attempting  to  over- 
throw and  break  up  the  best  Government  the  world 
ever  saw. 

"  ANDREW  JOHNSON. 

"WASHINGTON  CITY,  June  30,  1861." 

EEMARZS. — Upon  the  subject  of  this  most  infamous 
transaction  on  the  part  of  the  vile  author  or  authors 
we  shall  make  but  few  remarks;  but  they  shall  be 
pointed,  and  such  as  the  facts  call  for. 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  127 

1.  The   letters   purporting  to  be  .from  Johnson   to 
Lawrence  are  base  forgeries,  not  in  Johnson's  hand- 
writing,— forged  here   by  Secessionists,   and   at  two 
several  times  when  Johnson  was  speaking  in  Elizabeth- 
ton,  one  hundred  and  eighteen  miles  east,  and  at  Mont- 
gomery, forty-five  miles  northwest,  of  Knoxville.  When 
we  published  the  Lawrence  letter  and  the  copy  of  the 
one-thousand-dollar  draft,  we  charged  the  corruption  of 
intercepting  and  the  infamy  of  the  forgery  upon  Nash- 
ville and  Knoxville;  but,  from  our  knowledge  of  some 
of  the  Secession  materials  here,  we  give  the  preference 
to  Knoxville  ! 

2.  The  scoundrel,  cut-throat,  and  midnight  assassin 
who  forged  the  letters  was  first  aiming  to  steal  money 
through   this   medium.     He  could  not   use   the  draft 
without  forging  the  name  of  Johnson,  and  in  this  he 
would  have  been  detected  by  the  banker  or  broker  to 
whom   he   might   have   passed   it   off.     But   for  this, 
Governor  Harris  would  not  have  been  furnished  with 
the  original   letter   and   draft  with  which  to   expose 
Johnson.     Now,  as  Governor  Harris  is  mixed  up  with 
this  matter,  and  has  furnished  copies  of  the  letter  and 
draft  for  publication,  he  owes  it  to  himself  to  tell  the 
world  who  sent  him  the  original  from  Knoxville/    "Will 
he  tell?  or  will  he  seek  to  shield  the  guilty,  and  make 
himself  a  party  to  the  nefarious  transaction  ? 

3.  Had  the  "$5000  or  $10,000  in  New  England  cur- 
rency, in  large  bills,"  been  furnished  by  Lawrence,  the 


i28  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

thief  would  have  used  them  for  his  own  purposes,  and 
for  the  purposes  of  such  as  may  have  been  connected 
with  him  in  thus  getting  money  under  false  pretences. 
The  scoundrel  ought  at  once  to  be  sent  to  the  peni- 
tentiary. Whoever  he  may  be,  he  can,  no  doubt,  throw 
some  light  upon  the  history  and  mystery  of  the  SEVEN- 
TEEN HUNDRED  DOLLARS  lost  in  this  office  and  belong- 
ing to  the  branch  of  the  Bank  of  Tennessee  at  Athens ! 
That  dark  transaction  was  traced  to  this  place  by  Mr. 
Francis  and  others,  Government  officials,  and  myste- 
riously and  suddenly  hushed  into  profound  silence  !  We 
speak  of  it,  because  it  is  alluded  to  by  Governor  John- 
son, and  known  to  this  whole  community.  We  have  no 
information  as  to  who  is  even  suspected.  A  poor  devil 
of  a  dancing-master  was  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for 
taking  out  of  this  office  and  opening  a  letter  not  his 
own ;  but  these  Secession  forgers  and  stealers  of  large 
sums  of  money  are  allowed  to  go  scot-free ! 

4.  Certain  Secessionists  in  Knoxville  know  these 
letters  to  have  been  forged,  and  they  know  who  perpe- 
trated the  forgery,  though  we  are  not  informed  who  .the 
parties  are.  Nay,  when  the  corrupt  liar,  low-down 
drunkard,  irresponsible  vagabond,  and  infamous  coward 
of  the  Register  paraded  these  documents  before  the 
world  as  evidence  of  Johnson's  corruption,  he  then  knew 
them  to  have  been  forged.  A  man  capable  of  such 
scoundrelism,  corruption,  fraud,  and  duplicity  is  a  dan- 
gerous man  in  any  community, — not  too  good  to  burn 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  129 

a  house  down  in  the  dead  hour  of  the  night,  and 
capable  of  bribing  a  runaway  negro  or  convict  to  assas- 
sinate an  enemy! 

5.  Governor  Johnson  has  implicated  the  Knoxville 
postmaster  and  his  confederates.     This  they  can't  com- 
plain of,  upon  a  moment's  reflection,  for  the  facts  in  the 
case  deeply  involve  the  postmaster  and  all  who  were 
acting  as  deputies  and  clerks  at  the  time.     The  public 
will  hold  them  responsible,  and  they  owe  it  to  them- 
selves to  explain.     They  are  welcome  to  our  columns 
to  do  so,  free  of  charge.     They  ought  to  tell  the  public 
who  mailed  letters  there  under  the  forged  frank  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  addressed  to  Amos  Lawrence!     If 
they  are  not  able  to  do  this,  let  them  tell  to  whom  they 
handed  out  letters  addressed  to  Andrew  Johnson,  post- 
marked Boston,  one  of  which  contained  a  check  for  one 
thousand   dollars !      These  things    need    explanation. 
Johnson's  signature  is  as  peculiar  as  that  of  Andrew 
Jackson :   it  is  coarse,  heavy,  and  bold,  and  can't  be 
mistaken.     The  post-office  employe's  are  familiar  with 
it ;  and,  what  is  more,  they  knew  Johnson  was  not  in 
or  near  Knoxville  at  the  time  these  letters  were  de- 
posited under  this  forged  frank ! 

6.  This   desperate   effort   to   destroy  Johnson   will 
multiply  his  friends  in  every  direction,  and  cause  thou- 
sands to  come  out  in  his  favor  who  have  heretofore  felt 
indifferent,  and  occupied  neutral  ground,  so  far  as  he  is 
concerned.      And,  to-day,  there  is  not  an  honorable 


130  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

enemy  to  Johnson  in  this  State  who  will  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce him  a  gentleman,  a  patriot,  and  a  Christian,  com- 
pared with  any  man  concerned  in  this  base,  dark,  and 
infinitely  infernal  transaction ! 

Knoxville  Whig,  July  20,  1861. 

After  learning  as  I  did  that  the  guilt  of  this  trans- 
action attached  to  a  prominent  Secessionist,  a  citizen  of 
Knoxville,  I  stereotyped  the  following  article,  and  kept 
it  in  my  paper  until  it  was  suppressed  the  last  of  Oc- 
tober : — 

Keep  it  before  the  People, 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  the  Secessionists  of 
Knoxville  actually  forged  the  name  of  Governor  John- 
son, and  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  Amos  Law- 
rence, of  Boston,  with  a  view,  first,  to  destroy  Johnson's 
character,  and  to  have  him  assassinated,  and,  next,  to 
steal  money,  upon  the  credit  of  Johnson's  name  and 
political  position,  from  a  Northern  capitalist. 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  the  forgery  is  traced 
to  this  town,  and  is  known  to  have  been  perpetrated 
here,  and  the  fact,  as  well  as  the  author  of  the  forgery, 
are  alike  known,  and  can  be  proven  by  Secession  au- 
thority of  respectability. 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  the  letter  containing 
one  thousand  dollars,  enclosed  to  Johnson  here,  in  an- 
swer to  this  vile  forgery  of  his  name,  was  handed  out 
of  the  post-office  here  to  the  forger  or  his  representa- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  131 

tive,  and  that  the  letters  in  reply  were  mailed  here, 
upon  which  Johnson's  frank  was  forged,  and,  although 
this  has  been  charged  time  and  again,  in  this  paper, 
no  one  has  dared  to  deny  it ! 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  Governor  Harris  was 
furnished  with  this  forger's  letters  drawn  from  Law- 
rence, and  with  the  check  for  one  thousand  dollars, 
and  he  gave  out  copies  of  them  to  the  prejudice  of 
Johnson ;  and,  while  he  knows  them  to  have  been  ob- 
tained by  forgery  and  theft,  he  refuses  to  tell  who  his 
villainous  Knoxville  correspondent  is,  or  to  say  or 
publish  one  word  that  will  go  to  do  an  act  of  justice 
to  Johnson. 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  all  concerned  in  this 
dark,  damning,  and  most  infamous  transaction  should 
be  held  up  to  public  gaze,  as  objects  for  the  scorn,  con- 
tempt, and  hatred  of  all  honest  men  of  all  parties  in 
all  time  to  come  ! 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  Johnson  has  procured 
from  Lawrence  the  original  forged  letters,  written  and 
mailed  in  Knoxville, — that  he  recognizes  the  handwrit- 
ing, and  will  in  due  time  expose  the  forger. 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  as  many  as  a  half- 
dozen  respectable  East  Tennesseeans  have  been  to 
Washington,  inspected  these  base  forgeries,  in  John- 
son's possession, — that  they  report  them  clear  and  pal- 
pable cases  of  forgery,  and  that  they  readily  recognized 
the  handwriting  as  the  production  of  Knoxville. 


132  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  the  Knoxville  Regis- 
ter, edited  and  published  in  the  buildings  where  the 
post-office  was  kept  during  this  diplomatic  and  finan- 
cial correspondence,  and  familiar  with  the  turpitude 
of  the  whole  affair,  nevertheless  paraded  the  corre- 
spondence before  its  readers  as  a  wonderful  discovery, 
and  as  evidence  of  'Johnson's  corruption  and  Aboli- 
tionism. 

Keep  it  before  the  people,  That  this  whole  case  of 
forgery  is  before  the  leading  men  of  the  Confederate 
Government  at  Eichmond,  and  that  they  know  who 
the  guilty  parties  are ;  and,  however  little  they  may 
think  of  Governor  Johnson,  they  cannot  think  well  of 
the  means  resorted  to  to  destroy  him. 

P.  S.  I  have  since  seen  the  original  letters,  and  find 
them  to  be  in  the  handwriting  of  W.  G.  Swan,  a  lawyer, 
and  at  present  the  Eebel  Congressman  from  the  Knox- 
ville District.  Other  citizens  of  Knoxville  have  seen 
the  letters,  and  they  recognize  the  handwriting  of  the 
same  man.  But  the  question  comes  up,  How  came  he 
to  be  elected  to  their  Congress  ?  First,  such  conduct  is 
no  draw-back  upon  a  man  in  the  Southern  Confede- 
racy ;  and,  next,  this  man  only  received  from  seven  to 
eight  hundred  votes.  The  people  refused  to  vote,  as 
they  had  previously  given  ten  thousand  votes  to  Horace 
Maynard,  whom  they  elected  to  represent  them  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States. 


AMONG   THE   BEBELS.  133 

As  further  evidence  of  the  turpitude  of  this  affair, 
it  is  susceptible  of  proof  at  Knoxville  that  Rev.  Mr. 
Charlton  exhibited  the  forged  letters  written  to  Law- 
rence before  they  were  mailed,  in  his  office,  to  as  many 
as  two  different  men  !  Mr.  Charlton  is  a  Methodist 
preacher  of  intense  Secession  proclivities,  and  the  post- 
master at  Knoxville.  Besides,  Senator  Wigfall  stated 
in  Eichmond  that  Swan  had  written  there  that  such 
letters  were  passing  between  Johnson  and  Lawrence  even 
before  they  came  to  light.  What  a  commentary  upon 
the  morality  and  integrity  of  this  bogus  Confederacy  ! 


13 


134  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  SECESSION — SAVAGE  TREATMENT  OP  A  PREACHER — 
ATTEMPTING  TO  GIVE  THE  AUTHOR  THE  SMALL-POX — PROPOSITION  TO 
HAVE  US  MOBBED — TREATMENT  OF  AN  OLD  MAN — ARREST  OF  MR. 
DICKINSON — PERSONAL  ASSAULTS  IN  PRAYER — RAISING  LINCOLN'S 

BLOCKADE     BY    PRAYER THE     PRAYER-MEETING     SIGN — FORMING    A 

UNION  CHURCH — SHEPHERDS  FEEDING  THIER  FLOCKS — SECESSION 
AN  EPIDEMIC — THE  REAL  TRAITORS — FALSE  DISPATCHES — AT  THEIR 
OLD  TRICKS  AGAIN. 

UNDER  the  heading  of  this  chapter  I  propose  to 
give  various  brief  editorials  from  my  paper  during  the 
months  of  July,  August,  September,  and  October,  1861, 
as  they  go  far  to  disclose  the  vile  spirit  that  works  in 
the  hearts  of  the  rebel  children  of  disobedience  in  the 
so-called  Confederacy. 

The  McMinn  County  Arrests, 

Some  twenty-five  persons,  citizens  of  McMinn  county, 
were  brought  before  Judge  Humphreys  on  Monday, 
about  twenty  of  whom  were  released  on  the  ground 
that  there  was  nothing  against  them.  The  truth  is, 
they  had  voted  the  Union  ticket,  and  they  had  voted 
for  years  against  certain  men;  and  this  explains  their 
arrest.  They  were  taxed  with  small  fees  to  pay  costs, 
and  required  to  take  the  oath,  although  they  had 
committed  no  offence. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  135 

The  other  five  were  retained  for  further  hearing,  and 
Bent  into  camps,  under  a  military  escort,  for  the  night. 
Among  these  was  Kev.  Wm.  H.  H.  Duggan,  a  member 
of  the  Holston  Annual  Conference,  and  the  preacher  in 
charge  of  the  Athens  circuit.  He  was  arrested  at  a 
quarterly  meeting,  on  Friday  night,  and  marched  on 
foot  on  Saturday  nine  miles,  being  refused  the  privi- 
lege of  riding  his  own  horse,  and  on  Sabbath  he  was 
landed  at  Knoxville.  He  is  a  large,  fleshy  man, 
weighs  two  hundred  and  eighty-one  pounds,  and  was 
recovering  from  a  long  spell  of  fever.  He  gave  out  at  a 
spring  some  seven  miles  from  where  he  started.  The 
day  was  warm,  and  his  feet  were  sorely  blistered.  He 
begged  permission  to  ride  :  he  was  refused,  cursed,  and 
denounced,  and  threatened  with  bayonets  !  His  horse 
was  led  after  him,  as  if  to  aggravate  him.  They  even 
refused  him  water  to  drink,  or  any  thing  to  eat,  until 
Sunday. 

On  Thursday  evening  he  was  discharged  without 
entering  into  bonds  or  taking  any  oath.  The  indict- 
ment was  read  to  him  by  Attorney  Kamsey,  and 
charged  that  he  had  prayed  for  the  Government  of  the 
United  /States  ;  but  this  praying  was  the  previous  winter 
and  spring.  Duggan  is  a  very  poor  man,  with  a  wife 
and  six  helpless  children.  He  is  a  man  of  truth  and  of 
strict  integrity,  and  has  the  confidence  of  men  of  other 
denominations.  He  has  been  most  shamefullv  treated. 


136  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

This  was  in  October,  and  he  would  have  suffered 
with  cold  at  night,  but  for  the  fact  that  my  wife  sent 
him  several  blankets. 

The  Spirit  of  Secession, 

One  day  last  week,  the  Southern  mail  brought  us  a 
small  package,  done  up  precisely  like  a  newspaper,  and 
about  equal  in  size  to  one  of  our  exchanges,  with  the 
usual  endorsement,  "  Brownlow's  Whig,  Knoxville,  Ten- 
nessee," and  postpaid.  Upon  opening  it,  we  found  it 
to  contain  about  half  a  yard  of  brown  domestic,  with 
an  appearance  resembling  that  of  a  cloth  taken  from 
some  one  afflicted  with  small-pox.  We  had  it  burned 
in  the  front  yard  of  our  printing-office,  after  handling 
it  with  tongs !  This  is  the  spirit  of  Secession, — its 
mode  of  warfare,  and  its  sense  of  honor.  Clever  men, 
heretofore  high-minded,  will  not  be  long  in  their  ranks 
until  they  will  openly  justify  even  this  mode  of  war- 
fare against  Union  men. 

This  attempt  at  our  death,  by  the  planting  of  a 
masked  battery  manned  by  the  iniquitous  spirit  of 
Secession,  entitles  the  cowardly  villain  who  did  it,  to 
the  honor  of  being  picketed  in  the  deepest  gorge  lead- 
ing to  hell !  Not  only  so,  but  he  should  be  required 
to  make  nightly  advances  upon  the  ambuscades  of  the 
devil ;  and  every  morning  of  his  life,  by  way  of  health- 
ful exercise,  he  should  make  a  reconnoissance  of  the 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  137 

damned,  having  the  entire  control  of  the  guerrilla  rebels 
of  the  infernal  regions. 

A  Band  of  Villains, 

An  officer  accompanying  some  troops  from  Missis- 
sippi informed  us  that  men,  unknown  to  him,  but  look- 
ing like  citizens,  advised  the  troops,  while  changing  cars 
at  Chattanooga,  to  mob  us  on  their  arrival  at  Knoxville. 
Two  young  soldiers,  associated  with  our  sons  in  Emory 
&  Henry  College,  said  similar  advice  was  given  to  some 
of  the  Louisiana  troops  by  officials  on  the  railroad  be- 
tween Chattanooga  and  Knoxville.  And  it  is  a  well- 
ascertained  fact  that  citizens  of  this  town  have  re- 
peatedly urged  the  same  thing  upon  troops,  and  have 
sought  to  do  so  when  they  found  them  under  the 
influence  of  ardent  spirits. 

These  unmitigated  cowards,  God-forsaken  scoundrels, 
hell-deserving  villains,  and  black-hearted  assassins 
and  murderers,  seek  to  induce  strangers  in  the  army  to 
take  up  quarrels  and  fight  battles  which  they  them- 
selves are  too  cowardly  to  fight.  For  years  we  have 
held  up  a  portion  of  these  unprincipled  dastards,  dis- 
honest, lying,  swindling  scoundrels,  and  revolting  hy- 
pocrites, to  the  scorn,  contempt,  and  hatred  of  honest 
men,  passing  and  re-passing  them,  day  by  day,  and 
it  never  occurred  to  the  loathsome  villains  that  they 
ought  to  resent  it,  until  an  opportunity  offered  to 
hide  behind  some  infuriated  troops,  made  drunk 

12* 


138  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

for  the  occasion.  Some  of  them  are  white-livered 
cowards,  who  live  by  lying  and  swindling ;  others  are 
cloaking  their  deceit,  adultery,  and  numerous  acts  of 
baseness  in  one  or  another  of  the  Churches,  under  a 
pretence  of  being  religious;  and  others  of  them  are 
acting  for  pay,  as  the  tools  of  men  of  position  and  pro- 
perty. The  superiors  of  many  of  these  men  in  honor 
are  in  the  penitentiary;  and  the  superiors  of  others  of 
them  in  morals  and  piety  are  in  hell ! 

July  6,  1861. 

Treatment  of  an  Old  Man, 

Bryant  Breeden,  an  old  man,  some  sixty  years  of 
age,  and  a  very  respectable  citizen  of  Sevier  county, 
recently  had  a  daughter  to  die  in  Illinois,  leaving 
several  helpless  and  unprotected  children.  Mr.  Breeden 
determined  to  go  after  his  grandchildren,  and  took 
Memphis  on  his  way.  There  he  fell  into  the  hands  of 
the  Secessionists,  whose  great  concern  for  the  safety  of 
the  South  and  her  rights  led  them  to  arrest  him. 
Upon  learning  that  he  hailed  from  East  Tennessee, 
and  from  the  odious  Union  county  of  Sevier,  they 
procured  a  rope,  and  led  him  around,  threatening  every 
moment  to  hang  him.  He  had,  therefore,  to  abandon 
his  trip,  and  leave  his  poor  little  orphan  grandchildren 
to  the  mercy  of  strangers  in  Illinois.  He  was  a 
quiet  man  while  in  Memphis,  as  he  is  at  home, — 
disturbed  no  one, — but,  when  interrogated,  acknow- 
ledged himself  to  be  a  Union  man  from  East  Ten- 


AMONG   THE   BBBELS.  139 

nessee,  and  for  this,  and  no  other  offence,  was  he 
thus  treated.  This  is  the  spirit  which  everywhere 
actuates  the  self-constituted  Secession  Committees  of 
Safety,  and  the  leaders  of  those  most  intolerant  and 
odious  organizations.  No  wonder  that  freemen  of  East 
Tennessee,  by  thousands,  have  resolved  not  to  go  into 
this  Southern  Confederacy !  No  wonder  that  the  Union 
men  of  the  thirty  counties  of  East  Tennessee  should 
desire  to  be  cut  loose  from  the  rest  of  the  State,  and 
allowed  to  form  a  separate  State.  To  live  in  such  a 
Confederacy,  under  the  control  of  such  men,  actuated 
by  such  a  spirit,  is  literally  to  live  in  hell ! 

June  29,  1861. 

Arrest  of  Mr,  Dickinson, 

On  Saturday  evening,  Mr.  Perez  Dickinson,  for  the 
last  thirty  years  a  successful  merchant  of  Knoxville, 
returned  from  the  North,  whither  he  had  gone,  with 
the  written  permit  of  Governor  Harris,  to  attend  to 
business  connected  with  the  two  firms  of  which  he  is 
a  member.  On  Monday  morning  he  was  arrested 
upon  a  warrant,  based  upon  an  affidavit  filed  by  At- 
torney Eamsey,  setting  forth  that  said  Dickinson  was 
born  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  that  he  had 
recently  been  to  the  North  and  held  intercourse  with 
the  Northern  people.  This  was  the  charge,  and  this 
affidavit  was  all  the  proof  offered  against  him.  His 
Honor  Judge  Humphreys  bore  testimony  to  the  good 


140  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

character  and  high  standing  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  and 
proposed  to  him  that  he  should  at  once,  and  without  any 
investigation,  take  an  oath  of  allegiance  and  fidelity  to 
the  Confederate  States.  Mr.  Dickinson  rose,  and  re- 
sponded in  a  brief  address,  spoke  of  his  coming  here 
when  a  boy,  some  thirty  years  ago, — of  his  being  an 
orderly  and  law-abiding  citizen, — of  his  all  being  here, 
and  of  the  bones  of  his  mother,  sisters,  and  brother 
resting  here, — denied  that  he  had  held  any  intercourse 
with  the  people  of  the  North,  in  violation  of  his  parole 
to  Governor  Harris, — and  declined,  under  the  circum- 
stances of  compulsion  surrounding  him,  to  take  the  oath. 
His  Honor  then  instructed  him  that  he  would  have  to 
give  a  bond  of  ten  thousand  dollars  for  his  good  be- 
haviour during  the  few  days  allowed  him  to  remain  in 
the  State.  He  gave  the  required  bond,  and  was  dis- 
charged. 

Thus,  a  man  who  has  spent  his  life  here, — acquired 
by  industry  and  business  talents  a  fortune, — a  man 
whose  relatives  sleep  in  these  graveyards, — a  man  who 
has  committed  no  offence  but  the  one  committed  by  his 
parents  in  allowing  him  to  be  born  in  Massachusetts, 
— is  forced  to  leave  his  property  and  abandon  the  home 
of  his  adoption  and  choice,  and  go  into  exile !  He 
has  less  than  one  week  allowed  him  to  get  out  of  the 
State;  and  he  has  made  up  his  mind  to  go.  From  such 
oppression  and  tyranny  may  God  deliver  the  people 
of  this  distracted  and  ruined  country ! 


AM01JG   THE   REBELS.  141 

Personal  Assaults  in  Prayer. 

It  is  becoming  the  practice  of  our  Secession  clergy- 
men, in  part,  to  take  the  hides  off  Union  men  by 
holding  them  up  before  their  congregations  in  prayer, 
and  pretending  to  pray  for  them, — condemning  their 
"reported"  offences  and  deprecating  their  " reported" 
treachery  to  their  country.  "We  think  that  in  all 
cases  of  attack,  whether  in  public  or  private  prayers, 
the  parties  assailed  ought  to  be  present,  and  allowed  a 
division  of  time,  in  laying  the  other  side  before  the 
Lord.  We  admit  the  fairness  of  telling  the  Lord 
that  we  formed  our  charges  against  individuals  upon 
"reports,"  and  thus  conditionally  pray  for  their  de- 
struction. We  also  allow  that  the  Lord  ought  to 
be  posted  as  to  the  numerous  "  reports"  put  in  cir- 
culation by  Secessionists,  the  enemies  of  the  parties 
accused.  It  would  be  proper,  too,  in  presenting  the 
case  of  a  "traitor"  to  God  in  prayer,  to  state  to  the 
Most  High  what  we  admit  in  private, — to  wit,  that  we 
make  the  assault  to  gratify  certain  members  of  our 
congregations.  This  would  enable  the  Lord  to  receive 
what  we  say  with  certain  "grains  of  allowance."  But, 
in  all  cases  where  the  heads  of  families  are  to  be 
attacked  from  onr  praying  batteries,  let  the  females  of 
the  family  be  previously  notified  by  the  deacons  or 
elders,  that  they  may  not  be  mortified  and  insulted, 
have  their  feelings  outraged,  and  be  constrained  to 


142  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

go  home  crying  through  the  streets.  These  are  only 
suggestions  thrown  out  by  us  in  kindness  to  preachers 
and  people.  Let  them  pass  for  what  they  are  worth. 

This  attack  was  made  upon  Hon.  Horace  Maynard, 
who  was  at  Washington,  by  Rev.  Mr.  Martin,  pastor 
of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  in  Knoxville.  He 
prayed  that  his  traitorous  feet  might  never  again  press 
the  soil  of  Tennessee.  Mr.  Maynard  was  an  elder  in 
his  church,  and  his  estimable  wife  then  in  the  congre- 
gation. Next  day  the  parson  called  on  her,  and 
excused  himself  on  the  ground  that  he  was  urged  by 
some  of  his  members  to  make  the  attack  ! 

Kaising  Lincoln's  Blockade, 

We  are  informed  that  one  of  the  pastors  of  our  city 
actually  appointed  a  prayer-meeting  last  Sabbath 
night  to  especially  pray  for  the  raising  of  the  block- 
ade, and  that  he  called  on  God,  in  fervent  prayer,  to 
strike  Lincoln's  ships  with  lightning  and  scatter  them 
to  the  four  winds  of  heaven  !  The  idea  of  a  Secession 
preacher  heaving  and  setting  at  a  throne  of  grace, — 
like  a  ram  at  a  gate-post, — asking  God  to  raise  Lin- 
coln's blockade,  is  a  bright  idea  and  a  rich  conception, 
in  our  judgment.  That  churches  throughout  the 
country  have  become  demoralized,  that  preachers  have 
prostituted  themselves,  for  Secession,  is  as  plain  as  the 
nose  on  a  man's  face ;  but  it  does  not  yet  appear  that  the 
Almighty  has  mixed  Himself  up  with  any  such  scenes. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  143 

This  parson  was  Rev.  Mr.  Harrison,  pastor  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Knoxville.  He  held  his 
prayer-meeting,  and,  assisted  by  several  old  clericals, 
made  a  desperate  effort  to  raise  the  blockade!  God, 
in  answer  to  their  prayer,  gave  them  a  lift  on  Eoanoke 
Island,  some  weeks  after  the  prayer-meeting,  when  the 
entire  Eebel  forces  were  either  killed  or  taken  pri- 
soners by  Burnside's  blockading  squadron. 

This  man  Harrison  is  the  same  preacher  who 
boasted  in  his  pulpit  that  Jesus  Christ  was  a  {South- 
erner, born  on  Southern  soil,  and  so  were  His  apos- 
tles, except  Judas,  whom  he  denominated  a  Northern 
man !  Speaking  of  the  Bible,  he  said  he  would  sooner 
have  a  Bible  printed  and  bound  in  hell,  than  one 
printed  and  bound  north  of  Mason  &  Dixon's  line ! 

The  Prayer-Meeting  Sign, 

It  is  well  known  to  our  citizens  that  a  Union  Prayer- 
Meeting  has  been  kept  up  for  several  years  in  this 
city  by  the  several  religious  denominations,  and  that 
they  occupy  a  room  on  the  corner  of  Gay  and  Main 
Streets^,  where  there  is  a  modest  sign  out,  with  the 
inscription,  in  bronzed  or  gold-leaf  letters,  "  Union 
Prayer-Meeting  Boom."  Not  long  since,  some  troops 
from  one  of  the  Cotton  States  were  passing  through 
the  streets,  looking  at  the  town,  and,  burning  with 
indignation  for  the  old  defunct  Union,  could  not  bear 
to  see  a  sign  up  with  a  word  upon  it  that  would  call  the 


144  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

Union  to  mind.  They  halted,  looked  at  it,  and  swore,  by 
the  God  who  made  them,  "'That  d — d  thing  must  come 
down!"  One  of  the  Secession  leaders  of  the  town 
approached  them,  and  assured  them  that  the  allusion  on 
the  sign  was  not  to  the  Federal  Union,  but  to  a  union 
of  denominations.  But  the  infuriated  advocates  of 
Southern  rights  brought  it  down,  and  destroyed  it  on 
the  street. 

Forming  a  Union  Church, 

A  gentleman  of  character  and  influence  suggests 
that  portions  of  us,  belonging  to  different  denomina- 
tions, and  even  to  no  sect,  organize  a  new  congregation 
for  religious  worship,  and  that  we  employ  some  man 
of  talents  and  piety  to  preach  to  us,  irrespective  of 
creeds  or  confessions  of  faith.  We  like  this  idea,  and 
bring  it  before  our  readers  as  a  well-timed  suggestion. 
We  want  some  man  to  instruct  us  all  in  the  common 
gospel  of  God  our  Saviour,  who  will  not  mix  up  the 
sacred  truths  of  holy  writ  with  the  abominable 
heresy  of  Secession,  who  will  refrain  from  denouncing 
one  party  in  his  congregation  as  traitors  to  their 
country  and  their  God,  and  who  will  not  attack  pri- 
vate families  in  public  prayer.  We  have — among 
us — brought  disgrace  upon  the  church,  destroyed 
confidence  in  the  ministry,  disbanded  our  congrega- 
tions, and  broken  up  the  social  and  religious  ties  that 
formerly  bound  us  together.  It  is  useless  for  us  to 
meet  in  our  churches  on  the  Sabbath,  put  on  long, 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  145 

pious  faces,  offer  up  long  prayers,  hand  round  the 
bread  and  wine,  and  then  pass  out  in  society  and 
viliiy  each  other  as  a  set  of  pickpockets,  liars,  and 
traitors,  and  keep  up  this  holy  and  patriotic  warfare 
until  we  meet  again  the  next  Sabbath.  The  fool,  the 
wayfaring  man,  and  the  untutored  African  can  see 
that  we  are  wicked,  and  on  the  high-road  to  the  devil ! 
Let  us  break  up  our  hypocritical  organizations  called 
churches,  and  out  of  a  half-dozen  of  them  make  up 
one  new  one,  whose  pastor  and  members  shall  neither 
preach,  exhort,  nor  pray  any  thing  connected  with 
party  politics. 

August  10,  1861. 

"  Shepherd,  Feed  my  Sheep," 

This  was  the  command  of  Christ  to  His  apostles, 
and  through  them,  in  all  time  to  come,  to  His  minis- 
ters. The  nourishment  given  in  the  earlier  days  of 
the  gospel  dispensation  was  any  thing  but  what  it  is 
now,  under  the  improvements  of  our  age.  "Bepent 
and  believe  the  gospel,"  was  the  first  dish;  "Give  all 
diligence  to  make  your  calling  and  election  sure,"  was 
the  second  course.  The  dessert,  which  was  the  closing 
out  of  the  meal,  was  to  the  effect,  that  "if  ye  do  these 
things  ye  shall  never  perish." 

Then  we  were  not  prepared  to  see  our  Southerr 
preachers,  so  early  as  -1861,  following  the  bad  ex- 
ample of  these  false  teachers,  by  preaching  Secession, 


is 


14.6  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

profaning  the  Sabbath,  and  taking  commissions  in  the 
army  to  aid  in  carrying  on  a  most  wicked  and  unholy 
war, — seeking  the  overthrow  of  the  best  Government 
the  world  has  ever  known.  Ascending  the  sacred 
pulpit  on  the  Lord's  day,  under  a  pretence  of  "  feed- 
ing the  sheep,"  these  reverend  traitors  to  God  and 
their  country  deliver  inflammatory  stump-speeches, 
excite  the  worst  passions  of  a  people  not  extrava- 
gantly given  to  prayer,  and  thus  more  effectually  serve 
the  cause  of  the  devil  than  all  the  ultra  Abolition 
preachers  of  the  North  have  been  doing  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century  past.  The  South  is  now  full  of  these 
reverend  traitors,  and  every  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church  is  cursed  with  their  labors.  They  can  find 
nothing  in  the  teachings  or  example  of  the  meek  and 
lowly  Jesus  to  justify  them  in  feeding  their  flocks  on 
the  treasonable  doctrines  of  Secession  and  Southern 
Eights,  or  the  still  more  damnable  heresy  of  the  right 
of  a  State  of  this  Union  to  secede  at  pleasure  from  the 
Federal  compact,  merely  because  a  few  bad  men  and 
corrupt  politicians  have  been  turned  out  of  the  Federal 
offices  by  the  vote  of  the  people. 

Preachers,  all  must  admit,  have  a  right  to  their 
opinions  and  to  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  suffrage, 
but  they  have  no  right  to  disgrace  their  pulpits  on 
Sunday  by  delivering  inflammatory  stump-speeches, 
under  the  pretence  of  preaching  Christ  to  the  people. 
They  have  no  right  to  abandon  the  congregations  to 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  147 

whom  they  say  God  has  called  them  to  preach,  and  sew 
stripes  upon  their  pants,  swing  swords  to  their  sides, 
and  actually  turn  rowdies  in  the  camps  of  Jeff  Davis  ! 
And  these  reverend  gentlemen  should  remember — 
as  very  few  of  them  do — that  preachers  don't  make 
any  better  traitors  than  the  most  abandoned  sinners  in 
the  country.  Counterfeiting  money,  or  forging  checks 
upon  a  bank,  are  not  less  wicked  acts  because  perpe- 
trated by  a  preacher  than  they  would  be  if  perpetrated 
by  an  infamous  gambler. 

July  6,  1861. 

Secession  an  Epidemic. 

Secession  has  assumed  an  epidemic  form  in  most  of 
the  Southern  States,  and  men  become  Secessionists  with 
marvellous  rapidity.  It  is  nothing  to  know  that  a  par- 
ticular man  was  a  Union  man  last  night :  how  is  he 
this  morning?  This  is  the  question,  and  where  in- 
ducements are  held  out  to  fall  in  with  the  heresy, 
it  is  well  to  inquire  of  men,  morning,  evening,  and 
at  noon,  where  they  stand  upon  this  great  office-and- 
money  question.  Men  change  in  a  night.  Men  rise 
up  and  dress  as  Union  men,  and  turn  Secessionists 
before  breakfast  is  over.  The  worst  symptom  is  the 
morbid  excitement  of  the  organ  of  credulity.  The  cry 
of  a  loss  of  one's  rights  originates  the  disease,  and  it 
never  abates  till  the  patient  "goes  clear  out."  If  a 
man  is  pressed  for  money,  and  some  one  in  favor  of 
"  immediate  separation"  has  some  to  lend  on  time,  the 


148  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

man  wanting  to  borrow  sees  that  our  only  safety  is  in 
"  a  united  South."  If  a  man  is  a  Union  mechanic,  and 
out  of  work,  the  furnishing  him  with  a  small  job  at 
once  discloses  the  startling  fact  that  Lincoln  com- 
menced this  war,  that  it  is  a  war  of  conquest,  and 
that  the  sacred  soil  of  the  South  is  to  be  invaded  and 
the  negroes  all  set  at  liberty.  The  malady  is  short; 
the  disease  runs  its  course  in  twenty-four  hours,  and 
the  patient  heads  a  committee  to  order  better  men  than 
himself  to  leave  the  State  in  a  given  time.  He  be- 
lieves every  lie  he  hears,  and  swears  to  the  truth  of 
every  lie  he  tells.  He  drinks  mean  whiskey,  and  asso- 
ciates with  men  whom  the  day  before  he  would  have 
scorned.  The  disease  is  contagious,  and  a  clever  man 
will  contract  it  by  drinking  mean  whiskey  out  of  the 
same  tumbler  with  one  afflicted  with  it. 

July  6. 

The  Eeal  Traitors, 

Much  is  said  of  late  about  the  traitors  who  have 
brought  the  existing  troubles  upon  the  country,  and  a 
good  deal  is  said,  by  way  of  dispute,  as  to  who  they 
are.  Portions  of  them  live  on  both  sides  of  Mason 
&  Dixon's  line.  But  the  real  traitors  who  are  re- 
sponsible for  the  disruption  of  the  American  Union, 
and  the  present  civil  war,  threatening  such  fearful 
consequences,  are  Yancey,  Rhett,  Toombs,  Pryor,  Davis, 
Keitt,  Iverson,  Wise,  Mason,  Wigfall,  and  Breckin- 
ridge  and  Lane,  who  lent  themselves  to  these  miserable 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  149 

purposes.  If  there  are  any  men  in  this  country  who 
deserve  the  doom  of  traitors,  it  is  these  authors 
of  our  national  calamities.  And  if  the  war  continue 
three  to  five  years,  the  men  we  have  named,  and  other 
smaller  lights,  will  be  fugitives  in  foreign  countries. 
They  have  misled  and  deceived  the  Southern  people 
to  the  ruin  of  the  country.  And  when  the  reaction 
takes  place, — as  it  surely  will, — popular  vengeance 
will  seek  them  for  punishment.  When  disaster  and 
suffering  pervade  the  South,  as  they  surely  will, — 
when  the  innocent  people  cry  out  under  the  burden 
of  taxes  and  debt  which  this  war  will  force  upon 
them, — then  will  come  the  day  of  reckoning  for  the 
real  traitors,  the  political  demagogues,  who  are  the 
authors  of  the  nation's  calamity.  To  avoid  this  doom, 
these  men  will  make  superhuman  efforts  to  carry 
the  day  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  thus  prevent  the 
reaction  which  promises  their  ruin.  But  they  cannot 
evade  their  accountability  to  God  and  to  an  outraged 
people. 

July  6. 

False  Dispatches, 

We  find  in  Secession  papers  some  of  the  most  noto- 
riously false  dispatches  ever  published  in  the  world. 
These  appear  frequently,  under  sensation  heads,  dis- 
played in  large  capitals,  and  with  exclamation-points. 
We  never  copy  them ;  and  the  reason  is  that  we  are 

13* 


150  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

satisfied  that  they  do  not  contain  a  word  of  truth. 
They  have  turned  out  to  be  false,  and,  as  a  natural 
result,  they  have  destroyed  public  confidence  in  these 
Secession  sensation  dispatches.  Usually,  they  carry 
the  lie  upon  their  faces,  representing  a  few  hun- 
dred Southern  troops  as  whipping  several  thousand 
Yankees,  killing  and  wounding  so  many,  while  nobody 
is  hurt  on  the  Confederate  side.  To  listen  to  the 
"loud-swelling  words"  uttered  by  these  men,  one  would 
suppose  that  a  regiment  of  Yankees  will  take  to  flight 
upon  seeing  one  Southern  man  in  uniform.  We  never 
give  these  exciting  dispatches  to  our  readers,  and  for 
the  reason,  we  repeat,  that  we  do  not  believe  one  word 
they  set  forth,  and  do  not  wish  to  humbug  our  readers, 
many  of  whom  take  no  journal  but  ours. 

July  6. 

At  their  Old  Tricks  again, 

We  see  letters,  and  extracts  from  letters,  in  several 
Southern  Secession  papers,  boasting  of  the  vast  numbers 
of  Union  men  in  East  Tennessee  who  are  coming  out 
for  Secession  since  the  late  election.  Nay,  one  gifted 
writer  in  a  Georgia  paper  speaks  of  whole  counties 
having  turned  over  to  Secession.  This  is  a  revival  of 
their  system  of  wholesale  lying  carried  on  before  the 
February  election,  and  again  before  the  late  June  elec- 
tion. In  this  late  election  their  lying  letters  and  dis- 
patches, published  in  the  Nashville  and  Memphib 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  151 

papers,  claimed  that  they  would  carry  East  Tennessee. 
And  yet  when  the  votes  were  polled  they  lacked  some 
twenty  thousand  votes  of  carrying  East  Tennessee, 
whilst  out  of  thirty-or^e  counties  they  carried  five, — 
four  of  these  by  small  majorities. 

As  soon  as  one  defeat  is  over,  they  prepare  for 
another,  and  tell,  write,  and  publish  the  most  extrava- 
gant falsehoods  as  to  changes  that  are  going  on.  We 
notify  them  that  the  ballot-box,  on  the  first  Thursday 
in  August,  will  again  convict  them  of  lying.  If  they 
have  the  recruits  they  boast  of,  let  them  elect  members 
to  Congress  and  to  the  Legislature  from  East  Ten- 
nessee. We  give  them  notice  that  the  Union  men 
intend  to  elect,  and  that  they  will  do  it  fairly  by 
majorities,  and  through  the  ballot-box. 

July  6. 


152  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

THE  DISTINCTION  BETWEEN  THE  PARTIES — INFAMY  OF  THE  LEADERS 
OF  THIS  REBELLION REBEL  STEALING  IN  TENNESSEE REBEL  STEAL- 
ING IN  RICHMOND — SWINDLING  HORSE-CONTBACTS THE  SCRIPTURES 

AGAINST  THESE  EXTORTIONERS. 

As  a  general  thing,  in  speaking  of  the  troops  of  the  two 
contending  armies  we  speak  of  them  as  "Union  troops" 
and  "Confederates."  The  European  papers  call  the  former 
the  "  Federal  troops."  The  Government  troops  should 
be  called  the  National  troops,  because  ours  is  a  NATION, 
and  has  been  ever  since  we  abandoned  the  old  "  Confede- 
ration" and  established  a  National  Government. 

The  Southern  troops  should  not  be  designated  as 
"  Confederates,"  for  we  do  not  recognize  their  right  to 
separate  themselves  from  the  National  Government. 
They  are  legally  nothing  more  nor  less  than  rebels,  or 
insurgents,  and  they  should  be  so  characterized  when 
we  have  occasion  to  speak  of  them.  There  is  much  in 
a  name.  Let  the  two  parties,  then,  in  all  time  to  come, 
be  known  as  the  Rebels  and  Nationals. 

The  day  is  coming  when  the  originators  of  this 
rebellion  will  be  pilloried  in  history,  as  history  must 
name  them,  and  can  only  name  them  with  scorn.  I 
do  not  allude  to  those  in  obscurity,  persons  of  no 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  153 

mark,  who  have  retired  within  the  veil  of  the  obscurity 
of  mediocrity ;  but  I  allude  to  the  leaders, — the  men 
raised  to  high  public  positions,  who  led  off  in  this 
infernal  crusade,  and  now  head  their  bogus  Govern- 
ment and  their  retreating  army.  They  are  now  being 
despised  by  thousands  who  have  been-  their  tools,  and 
who  had  not  nerve  enough  to  resist  their  bad  designs 
in  the  outset.  These  villains  will  stand  conspicuous  in 
all  coming  time,  as  a  man  upon  the  gallows  stands ;  and, 
to  increase  their  misery,  they  will  have  no  sympathy 
from  any  quarter.  No  loyal  man  will  welcome  one  of 
them  to  his  house,  or  call  a  child  by  his  name.  Their 
careers  will  end  before  their  lives,  and  after  death — if 
not  before — their  names  will  become  the  synonyms  of 
dishonor  and  contempt. 

Eebel  swindling  has  outstripped  any  other  thieving 
heard  of  in  the  history  of  this  war.  I  could  give  many 
instances,  but  will  content  myself  with  a  few,  authen- 
ticated by  Rebel  papers.  'The  Clarksville  (Tenn.) 
Chronicle  thus  rebukes  certain  unmitigated  Shylocks 
in  Middle  Tennessee : — 

"When  we  think  of  the  self-sacrificing  patriotism 
of  our  brave  volunteers,  and  then  look  at  the  Shylocks 
at  home  who  extort  the  last  cent  from  their  families 
for  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  contrast  is  painfully  dis- 
gusting. The  cause  of  the  South  must  suffer  severely 
under  such  a  state  of  things ;  and  should  the  war  con- 
tinue long,  the  country  will  learn,  to  its  cost,  that  men 
will  not  volunteer  to  fight  its  battles,  leaving  their 
dependent  wives  and  daughters  to  the  tender  charities 


154  BKOWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

of  the  sharpers  who  have  no  higher  or  holier  ambition 
than  to  speculate  upon  the  scanty  pittance  of  daily 
bread  that  prolongs,  without  comforting,  life.  The 
soldier  has  no  spirit  to  fight  the  common  enemy  when 
he  knows  that  he  leaves  behind  him  a  deadly  foe  to  the 
comforts  of  his  family,  and  is  made  to  feel  that  every 
danger  he  encounters  and  every  hardship  he  endures 
is  for  the  defence  of  the  mercenary  and  heartless  specu- 
lators who  make  dire  necessity  the  pretext  for  oppres- 
sion. The  press,  in  every  section  of  the  Confederacy, 
is  loud  in  its  complaints  against  such  unnatural  con- 
duct, and  in  North  Carolina  the  Government  has  found 
it  necessary  to  interpose  its  authority  for  the  protection 
of  families  against  the  monopolizing  greed  of  those  who 
seek  to  build  up  fortunes  upon  the  necessities  of  the 
times.  If  common  humanity,  or  a  sense  of  shame,  can- 
not reach  these  men,  and  the  laws  will  not,  the  time  is 
not  distant  when  Judge  Lynch  will  pass  sentence  upon 
them." 

The  Richmond  Examiner — the  organ  of  Jeff  Davis 
— for  January  17,  thus  notices  the  frauds  in  the  Trea- 
sury Department  at  Richmond : — 

"We  are  aware  of  the  recent  occurrence  of  some 
bold  frauds  on  the  Treasury,  which  have  been  conve- 
niently hushed  up  in  that  department.  We  have 
avoided  any  particular  statement  of  the  facts,  as  Mr. 
Memminger,  instead  of  bringing  the  matter  to  the  ex- 
amination of  the  civil  courts,  where  it  would  have 
got  to  the  public,  adopted  the  expedient  of  turning  out 
all  the  clerks  in  one  of  the  rooms  of  the  department, 
thereby  confounding  the  innocent  with  the  guilty,  on 
account  of  the  former  of  whom  we  were  loath  to  make 
the  subject  one  of  publication  in  the  newspapers. 

"  In  the  matter,  however,  of  these  frauds  there  has 
been  an  amount  of  official  carelessness  and  negligence 
to  which  we  not  only  feel  free,  but  are  constrained  by 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  155 

public  duty,  to  refer.  It  appears  that  the  fraud  con- 
sisted in  the  abstraction  of  whole  sheets  of  signed  Trea- 
sury notes.  At  one  time  one  sheet  was  abstracted,  and 
the  fraud  reported  to  Mr.  Memminger.  But  a  few  days 
ago  two  sheets  were  abstracted.  In  both  instances, 
occurring  at  different  times,  the  fraud  was  accom- 
plished by  the  neglect  in  the  department  to  count  the  sheets 
as  they  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  Each  sheet  pro- 
bably represented  several  thousand  dollars,  and  was  as 
good  as  so  much  money;  and  the  practice  of  shuffling 
them  from  hand  to  hand,  and  taking  no  account  of 
them,  affords  not  only  an  instance  of  the  grossest  care- 
lessness ever  heard  of  in  a  Government,  but  actually 
offered  a  premium  for  the  fraud  of  clerks.  What 
would  be  thought  of  not  counting  coin  in  a  mint  ?  And 
yet  it  would  be  less  reckless  than  the  omission  to  count 
sheets  of  paper  representing  thousands  of  dollars,  any 
one  of  which  might  be  abstracted  as  easily  as  a  single 
gold  eagle  from  a  heap  of  coin." 

The  Eichmond  Examiner  for  January  15  thus 
exposes  the  swindling  of  its  partisans  in  "horse-con- 
tracts:"— 

The  Horse-Contracts, 

"We  have  reason  to  believe  that,  in  some  of  the 
purchasing  departments  of  the  Government,  monstrous 
and  audacious  frauds  have  been  perpetrated;  and  we 
expect  soon  to  be  in  possession  of  the  facts  to  authorize 
a  complete  exposure  of  this  matter.  There  is  talk  on 
the  street  that  one  single  horse-contract  of  a  well- 
known  official  here  has  realized  him  a  fortune.  We 
have  more  than  once  had  our  attention  called  to  the 
curious  management  of  a  fraud  in  the  purchase  of 
horses  for  the  Government.  It  is  for  the  purchasing 
officer,  in  the  first  instance,  to  reject  horses  that  are 
offered,  as  not  coming  up  to  the  Government  standard 
or  as  unsound;  a  pimp  or  accomplice  is  kept  to  buy 


156  BROWKLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

the  horse,  after  he  is  rejected,  at  a  reduced  price,  and 
then  the  purchasing  officer  buys  from  the  accomplice, 
and  charges  the  horse,  of  course,  at  the  full  Govern- 
ment price. 

"The  subjoined  statement  of  a  correspondent  hints 
at  this  acute  trick  of  complicity  by  which  the  Govern- 
ment is  defrauded : — 

"  'Some  time  since,  I  rode  to  one  of  the  Government 
stables  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Potomac,  and  offered 
to  sell  to  the  agent  there  a  very  fine  pony,  both  for 
riding  and  working  purposes ;  but  the  agent  said  -he  did 
not  want  said  horse  at  any  price.  He  was  too  small, 
&c.  &c.  I  concluded  that  I  would  take  a  look  at  the 
horses  there,  expecting  to  see  them  all  large  and  fine; 
but,  to  my  great  surprise,  I  found  horses  there  not 
much  more  than  half  as  heavy  as  my  own,  with  sore 
backs,  swollen  legs,  hip-caps  gone,  lame,  big  heads  and 
little  bodies,  sharp  behind  and  low  before,  legs  scarred 
from  kicking  in  gear,  &c.  &c.  The  mules  were  in 
similar  condition.  I  asked  the  men  who  were  attend- 
ing to  them  if  the  agent  there  bought  those  horses  for 
the  Government.  They  said  he  had.  I  then  remarked 
that  said  agent  would  not  purchase  mine  at  any  price, 
and  yet  I  would  not  give  him  for  a  stable  full  of  such 
horses  as  I  saw  there.  An  old  man,  who  stammered 
badly,  replied,  by  saying,  "M-m-aster,  I-I-I  r-r-reckon, 
s-s-sir,  you  do-don't  be-be-long  to-to  dat  par-party  whar- 
whar  dey  fa- fa-favors,  s-sir."  Of  course,  I  disclaimed 
all  connection  with  that  party.  I  had  heard  a  report 
before  this,  that  only  a  certain  party  or  parties  could 
sell  horses  there,  and  that  a  handsome  profit  was  made 
out  of  the  Government  on  every  horse  purchased.  How 
true  the  report  is,  I  can't  say;  but  certainly  an  inves- 
tigation ought  to  be  had  in  the  matter.  Horse-dealers 
had  told  me  that  I  could  not  sell  any  horse  to  the  Go- 
vernment,— that  he  must  get  into  certain  other  hands 
first.  I  wonder  if  such  is  true?' ' 

This  stealing  irom  their  bogus  Government  and  de- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  157 

frauding  the  common  soldier,  has  been  going  on  all 
over  the  so-called  Confederacy.  They  have  no  faith  in 
the  ultimate  triumph  of  their  arms,  and  hence  they 
seek  to  make  out  of  the  Eebellion  all  they  can, — 
thieving  and  singing, — 

When  we're  here  a  few  more  days, 

A  fobbing  public  money, 
We'll  have  less  ways  to  make  a  raise 

Than  when  we  begun-ah! 

For  the  edification  of  those  of  them  who  vend  goods, 
wares,  and  merchandise  for  all  that  they  can  get,  and 
swindle  their  bogus  Government,  I  advise  their  whiskey- 
drinking  chaplains  to  preach  to  them  from  the  follow- 
ing passages  of  holy  writ: — 

Ezekiel  xxii.  12. — "In  thee  have  they  taken  gifts  to 
shed  blood;  thou  hast  taken  usury  and  increase,  and 
thou  hast  greedily  gained  of  thy  neighbors  by  extortion, 
and  hast  forgotten  me,  saith  the  Lord  God." 

Isa.  xvi.  4. — "Let  mine  outcasts  dwell  wfth  thee, 
Moab;  be  thou  a  covert  to  them  from  the  face  of  the 
spoiler;  for  the  extortioner  is  at  an  end,  the  spoiler 
ceaseth,  the  oppressors  are  consumed  out  of  the  land." 

1  Cor.  vi.  10. — "Nor  thieves,  nor  covetous,  nor 
drunkards,  nor  revilers,  nor  extortioners,  shall  inherit 
the  kingdom  of  God." 


14 


158  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  CONSPIRACY  TO  BREAK  UP  THE  GOVERNMENT THE  PLOT  AND  ITS 

DEVELOPMENTS TESTIMONY  OF  SECESSION  WITNESSES — DOCUMENTS 

WORTHY  OF  BEING  PRESERVED,  AND  WORTHY  OF  BEING  STUDIED  BY 
THE  FRIENDS  OF  THE  UNION 

IN  one  of  the  issues  of  our  paper  we  publisned  an 
article  nearly  two  columns  in  length,  with  the  proof 
carefully  arranged,  going  to  convict  this  Breckinridge- 
Yancey  party  of  Seceders  of  the  foul  crime  of  seeking 
to  disrupt  this  Government.  They  are  guilty;  it  is 
what  they  are  after, — what  they  had  in  view  when 
they  bolted  at  Baltimore  and  nominated  Breckinridge. 
We  can  establish  it  beyond  doubt;  it  is  due  to  the 
public  that  we  do  so;  and,  for  reference  among  the 
friends  of  the  Union,  we  here  insert  the  whole  story. 

The  conspiracy  against  this  Union  by  that  wing  of 
the  Democratic  party  which  has  gone  off  in  the  Breckin- 
ridge crusade,  is  now  established  beyond  controversy. 
But,  with  a  view  to  open  the  eyes  of  honest  and  pa- 
triotic men  in  the  Democratic  ranks,  of  whom  there 
are  thousands,  we  will  submit  other  proof,  and  still 
more  convincing  evidence,  so  that  none  need  be  in 
doubt  who  will  read,  and  read  the  testimony  of  Demo- 


AMONG    THE   EEBELS.  159 

crats.  Their  infernal  plot  was,  themselves  being  witnesses, 
to  break  up  the  Union,  to  revolutionize  the  Government, 
and  to  establish  upon  its  ruins  a  Southern  Confederacy. 
They  have  gone  with  cold-blooded,  deliberate  malice 
into  the  plot,  and  Breckinridge  has  lent  himself,  as  the 
tool  of  these  conspirators,  to  head  them,  and  really 
deserves  to  be  hung.  Their  treason  and  fraud  no 
longer  burrow  beneath  the  surface  in  the  names  of 
Nashville  Southern  Convention  or  Southern  Commer- 
cial Convention.  They  have  now  thrown  off  the  mask 
and  raised  their  traitorous  heads  to  the  view  of  the 
world. 

Old  Davy  Hubbard,  an  ex-Congressman  from  Ala- 
bama, and  a  delegate  to  Charleston  and  Baltimore,  thus 
discoursed  to  his  Disunion  brethren  on  the  great 
struggle  between  the  factions : — 

"Let  us  proceed  at  once  to  examine  the  relation 
sustained  by  each  section  to  the  great  issue, '  Negro  or  No 
Negro/  now  before  the  country,  and  which  has  brought 
these  dissensions, — the  main  issue,  before  which  all 
others  should  and  will  give  way,  until  it  is  settled, — 
emancipation  and  equality  of  races  on  one  side,  pro- 
tection by  the  Union  Government  in,  or  protection  out 
of  it,  on  the  other.1' 

Governor  Wise,  who  was  afterwards  so  anxious  to 
give  the  vote  of  the  Old  Dominion  to  Breckinridge, 
addressed  letters  to  all  the  Southern  Democratic  Go- 
vernors, in  1856,  with  a  view  of  concerting  measures 
to  prevent  the  inauguration  of  Fremont  in  the  event 


160  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

of  his  election,  which  amounted  to  revolution  and 
disunion.  Here  is  the  letter  as  it  since  appeared  in  the 
papers : — 

"RICHMOND,  VA.,  Sept.  15,  1856. 

""DEAR  SIR:— 

"  Events  are  approaching  which  address  themselves 
to  your  responsibilities  and  to  mine  as  chief  Executives 
of  slave-holding  States.  Contingencies  may  soon  happen 
which  would  require  preparation  for  the  worst  of  evils 
to  the  people.  Ought  we  not  to  admonish  ourselves  by 
joint  counsel  of  the  extraordinary  duties  which  may 
devolve  upon  us  from  the  dangers  which  so  palpably 
threaten  our  common  peace  and  safety?  When,  how, 
or  to  what  extent  may  we  act,  separately  or  unitedly, 
to  ward  off  dangers  if  we  can,  to  meet  them  most 
effectually  if  we  must? 

"I  propose  that,  as  early  as  convenient,  the  Governors 
of  Maryland,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Caro- 
lina, Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
Arkansas,  Mississippi,  and  Tennessee,  shall  assemble  at 
Ealeigh,  North  Carolina,  for  the  purpose  generally  of 
consultation  upon  the  state  of  the  country,  upon  the 
best  means  of  preserving  its  peace,  and  especially  of 
protecting  the  honor  and  interests  of  the  slave-holding 
States.  I  have  addressed  the  States  only  having 
Democratic  Executives,  for  obvious  reasons. 

"This  should  be  done  as  early  as  possible  before  the 
Presidential  election,  and  I  would  suggest  Monday, 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  161 

13 tli  of  October  next.     Will  you  please  give  me  an 
early  answer,  and  oblige, 

"Yours,  most  truly  and  respectfully, 

"  HENRY  A.  WISE. 

"His  Excellency  THOMAS  W.  LIGON,  Governor  of  Maryland." 

The  same  to  Thomas  Bragg,  Governor  of  North 
Carolina;  James  H.  Adams,  Governor  of  South  Caro- 
lina; H.  V.  Johnson,  Governor  of  Georgia;  James  C. 
Broome,  Governor  of  Florida;  John  A.  Winston,  Go- 
vernor of  Alabama;  John  J.  McEae,  Governor  of  Mis- 
sissippi; Kobert  Wickliffe,  Jr.,  Governor  of  Louisiana; 
Edmund  M.  Pease,  Governor  of  Texas;  Elias  N.  Can- 
way,  Governor  of  Arkansas;  and  Andrew  Johnson, 
Governor  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  Spratt,  of  South  Carolina,  afterwards  a  supporter 
of  Breckinridge,  said,  in  the  Southern  Commercial 
Convention  at  Vicksburg, — 

"It  might  be  said  that  the  slave-trade  could  not  be 
legalized  within  the  Union,  and  that  to  re-establish  it 
the  Union  would  have  to  be  dissolved.  Let  it  be  so. 
The  men  of  the  South  had  higher  trusts  than  to  pre- 
serve the  Union." 

Judge  Jones,  of  Georgia,  afterwards  for  Breckinridge, 
said,  in  this  same  Vicksburg  Convention, — 

"  He  proclaimed  himself  a  Disunionist  since  1829,  but 
he  did  not  believe  the  Southern  States  would  go  out  of 
the  Union  unless  they  were  kicked  out.  He  believed 


162  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

there  was  no  chance  of  equality  in  the  Union;  and  he 
would  rather  die  a  poor  wolf  in  the  woods  than  live  a 
fat  dog  with  any  man's  collar  on  his  neck.  He  owed 
no  allegiance  to  any  power  but  Georgia !  He  urged 
the  fallacy  of  the  apprenticeship-theory.  They  would 
be  brought  here  as  apprentices,  and  as  soon  as  their 
time  was  out  they  would  be  sold  as  slaves.  That  might 
not  be  slave-stealing,  but  to  him  it  squinted  a  good 
deal  like  it.  [Applause.]  If  he  were  on  a  jury,  and  a 
man  were  tried  before  him  under  the  slave-trade  acts, 
he  would  never  find  him  guilty,  because  they  were 
unconstitutional." 

In  1858,  this  Southern  Breckinridge  party  put  forth 
a  pamphlet,  with  which  they  flooded  the  Southern 
States,  avowedly  with  a  view  to  form  a  "great  Southern 
party,"  and,  after  a  Disunion  preamble,  the  first  of  a 
series  of  resolutions  is  in  these  words : — 

"  Resolved, — 1.  That,  with  that  purity  of  motive, 
consciousness  of  rectitude,  and  noble  determination  to 
do  right,  we  recommend,  and  will  do  ALL  WE  CAN  to 
bring  about,  an  honorable  and,  if  possible,  a  peaceable 
separation  of  the  Southern  Slave  States  from  the 
Northern  free  States" 

Senator  Iverson,  of  Georgia,  afterwards  an  ardent 
Breckinridge  man",  said  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
7th  of  January,  1859,  — 

"  Sir,  there  is  but  one  path  of  safety  for  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  the  South  when  this  mighty  ava- 
lanche of  fanaticism  and  folly  shall  press  upon  us,  and 
that  path  lies  through  separation  and  a  Southern  Con- 
federacy. This  is  the  great -ultimate  security  for  the 
rights,  honor,  and  prosperity  of  the  South.  Sir,  there 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  163 

are  even  now  thousands  of  her  sons  who  believe  that 
the  Slave  States,  formed  into  a  separate  Confederacy 
and  united  under  such  a  government  as  experience  and 
wisdom  would  dictate,  would  combine  elements  of  more 
political  power,  national  prosperity,  social  security,  and 
individual  happiness,  than  any  nation  of  ancient  or 
modern  times;  and,  sir,  I  am  among  the  number" 

South  Carolina  was  for  Breckinridge,  and  her  Legis- 
lature cast  her  Electoral  vote  for  him.  Here  is  a  reso- 
lution adopted  by  that  same  Legislature,  in  advance  : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  election  of  a  President  of  the 
United  States  by  a  sectional  party,  with  views  adverse 
to  the  institution  of  domestic  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the 
slave-holding  States  and  Territories,  or  of  one  who  is 
opposed  to  the  grant  of  the  protection  claimed  in  the 
foregoing  resolution,  would  so  threaten  a  destruction 
of  the  ends  for  which  the  Constitution  was  formed,  as 
to  justify  the  slave-holding  States  in  taking  counsel 
together  for  their  separate  protection  and  safety." 

Alabama  was  furious  in  her  support  of  Breckinridge; 
and  here  is  a  resolution  adopted  by  her  Legislature 
with  absolute  unanimity  : — 

"2d.  Be  it  further  resolved,  That  in  the  absence  of 
any  preparation  for  a  systematic  co-operation  of  the 
Southern  States  in  resisting  the  aggressions  of  their 
enemies,  Alabama,  acting  for  herself,  has  solemnly 
declared  that  under  no  circumstances  will  she  submit 
to  the  foul  domination  of  a  sectional  Northern  party, 
has  provided  for  the  call  of  a  convention  in  the  event 
of  the  triumph  of  such  a  faction  in  the  approaching 
Presidential  election,  and,  to  maintain  the  position  thus 
deliberately  assumed,  has  appropriated  the  sum  of 


164  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

$200,000  for  the  military  contingencies  which  such  a 
course  may  involve." 

Governor  Mouton,  of  Louisiana,  was  a  delegate  in 
the  Charleston  Convention,  and  was  for  Breckinridge. 
He  offered  the  following  resolution  in  the  State  Con- 
vention on  the  6th  of  March,  1860;  and  it  was  adopted 
by  acclamation : — 

"  6.  That  in  case  of  the  election  of  a  President  on 
the  avowed  principles  of  the  Black  Eepublican  party, 
we  concur  in  the  opinion  that  Louisiana  should  meet 
in  council  her  sister  slave-holding  States  to  consult  as 
to  the  means  of  future  protection." 

Texas,  also  for  Breckinridge,  adopted  the  following 
resolution  in  a  State  Convention  at  Galveston,  in  April, 
1860  :— 

"  JResolved,  That  we  regard  with  great  aversion  the 
unnatural  efforts  of  a  sectional  party  at  the  North  to 
carry  on  an  '  irrepressible  conflict'  against  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery ;  and  whenever  that  party  shall  succeed 
in  electing  a  President  upon  their  platform,  we  deem  it 
to  be  the  duty  of  the  people  of  the  State  of  Texas  to 
hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  co-operate  with  our 
sister  States  of  the  South  in  convention,  to  take  into 
consideration  such  measures  as  may  be  necessary  for 
our  protection,  or  to  secure  out  of  the  Confederacy  that 
protection  of  their  rights  which  they  can  no  longer 
hope  for  in  it." 

The  Mississippi  State  Convention  in  January,  1860, 
adopted  this  resolution,  and  the  men  who  were  most 
prominent  in  that  Convention  were  for  Breckinridge : — 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  165 

"Resolved,  That  in  the  event  of  the  election  of  a 
Black  republican  candidate  to  the  Presidency  by  the 
suffrages  of  one  portion  of  the  Union  only,  to  rule  over 
the  whole  United  States,  upon  the  avowed  purpose  of 
that  organization,  Mississippi  will  regard  it  as  a  decla- 
ration of  hostility,  and  will  hold  herself  in  readiness  to 
co-operate  with  her  sister  States  of  the  South  in  what- 
ever measure  they  may  deem  necessary  for  the  main- 
tenance of  their  rights  as  co-equal  members  of  the 
Confederacy." 

We  could  add  any  number  of  the  treasonable  sayings 
of  the  men  and  States  who  backed  up  Breckinridge, 
but  the  proof  of  their  infamous  conspiracy  is  now  com- 
plete. Breckinridge  himself  was  aware  of  the  designs 
of  the  men  who  procured  his  nomination,  and  he  went 
into  it  under  standingly.  He  expected  what  was  coming, 
and  sympathized  with  this  infernal  movement.  In  a 
speech  delivered  at  Frankfort,  and  written  out  by 
himself  for  publication,  he  said : — 

"  Perhaps  the  most  imminent  danger  springs  from 
the  possible  action  of  certain  members  of  the  Con- 
federacy. The  representatives  from  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi,  not  to  mention 
other  Southern  States,  say  that  they  represent  their 
constituents, — nay,  that  they  scarcely  go  so  far  as  their 
constituents ;  and  most  of  them  declare  that  they  are 
ready  at  any  moment  for  a  separate  organization. 
Some  of  the  Southern  Legislatures  have  passed  resolves 
of  this  character;  and  we  may  safely  assume  that  is  the 
true  feeling  of  the  people." 

In  other  portions  of  the  speech,  Mr.  Breckinridge 


166 


tells  the  people  of  Kentucky  that  resistance  must  ba 
resorted  to,  sooner  or  later  /  And  General  Martin,  of 
South  Carolina,  in  a  late  ratification  speech  of  his,  thus 
alludes  to  Breckinridge : — 

"And  having  read  carefully  his  speech,  delivered  at 
Frankfort,  Kentucky,  when  he  could  not  have  expected 
a  nomination,  I  am  now  better  satisfied  that  he  is  a 
States  Bights  man  of  the  strictest  school,  more  satisfied 
than  I  was  when  I  gave  him  my  vote  at  Richmond.  In 
that  speech  he  lays  down  a  broad  ground, — a  ground 
that  I  will  close  my  remarks  with,  and  save  me  a  great 
deal  of  what  I  intended  otherwise  to  say.  He  tells  his 
people  that  the  Democratic  party  was  a  very  good 
thing  in  itself,  but  they  were  not  to  rely  upon  the 
Democratic  party  or  any  party.  They  were  to  rely 
upon  themselves.  The  South  must  rely  upon  its 
own  strong  arm,  and  be  prepared  for  any  and  every 
emergency." 

We  will  only  add  that  every  prominent  Disunion 
man  in  the  South  was  for  Breckinridge. 

W.  L.  Yancey,  of  Alabama,  is  the  bell-wether  of  the 
Disunion  flock  in  the  South,  and  the  man  who  had  an 
interview  with  Breckinridge  at  Washington  and  coaxed 
him  into  the  lead  of  the  traitorous  gang  who  have  con- 
spired to  subvert  this  Government.  Here  is  said 
Yancey's  celebrated  Slaughter  letter,  which  defines  his 
principles,  and  which  will  slaughter  Breckinridge,  and 
all  others  engaged  in  the  same  infamous  cause  of  Dis- 
union, and  their  children  after  them  in  all  time  to  come. 
We  predicted  that  twelve  months  from  that  time,  Aaron 


AMONG   THE    REBELS,  167 

BUTT  will  be  regarded  as  a  patriot,  compared  with  the 
movers,  speakers,  and  active  partisans  in  this  Disunion 
scheme : — 

"MONTGOMERY,  June  15,  1858. 

"  DEAR  SIR  :— 

"  Your  kind  letter  of  the  15th  is  received.  I  hardly 
agree  with  you  that  a  general  movement  can  be  made 
that  will  clean  out  the  Augean  stable.  If  the  Demo- 
cracy were  overthrown,  it  would  result  in  giving  place 
to  a  greater  and  hungrier  swarm  of  flies. 

"  The  remedy  of  the  South  is  not  in  such  a  process. 
It  is  in  a  diligent  organization  of  her  true  men  for  the 
prompt  resistance  of  her  next  aggression.  It  must 
come  in  the  nature  of  things.  No  national  party  can 
save  us  ;  no  sectional  party  can  ever  do  it.  But  if  we 
should  do  as  OUT  fathers  did, — organize  committees  of 
safety  all  over  the  Cotton  States,  (and  it  is  only  in  them 
we  can  hope  for  any  effective  movement,} — we  shall  fire 
the  Southern  heart,  instruct  the  Southern  mind,  give 
courage  to  each  other,  and  at  the  proper  moment,  by 
one  organized,  concerted  action,  WE  CAN  PRECIPITATE 
THE  COTTON  STATES  INTO  A  REVOLUTION. 

11  The  idea  has  been  shadowed  forth  in  the  South  by 
Mr.  Baffin, — has  been  taken  up  and  recommended  by 
the  Advertiser,  under  the  name  of  '  League  of  United 
Southerners/  who,  keeping  up  the  old  party  relations 
on  all  other  questions,  will  hold  the  Southern  issue  para- 


168  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

mount,  and  will  influence  parties,  Legislatures,  and 
statesmen.  I  have  no  time  to  enlarge,  but  to  suggest 
merely. 

"  In  haste,  yours,  &c., 

"  W.  L.  YANCEY. 
"  To  JAMES  SLAUGHTER,  Esq." 

But  why  disguise  the  issue?  This  Breckinridge 
party  made  up  the  issue  of  Disunion,  and  throughout 
the  South  boasted  of  their  purpose  to  convene  a 
Congress  at  Eichmond  and  go  out  of  the  Union.  A 
Breckinridge  meeting  in  Louisiana  adopted  a  string  of 
twenty-seven  resolutions,  and  a  friend  at  Homer,  Louis- 
iana, enclosed  them  to  us  in  a  printed  slip.  The  follow- 
ing are  two  of  these  resolutions  : — 

"  Resolved,  That,  while  we  place  a  high  value  on  the 
Union,  we  place  a  still  higher  on  the  institution  of 
slavery,  and  if  unfortunately  we  must  be  compelled  to 
part  with  one  or  the  other,  we  cannot  hesitate  to  part 
with  the  Union. 

"  Resolved,  That  we  will  use  all  possible  means  to 
keep  the  yellow  fever  from  New  Orleans  and  other  sea- 
port towns  of  the  Slave  States,  by  establishing  and 
enforcing  the  quarantine  law,  and  encourage  emigra- 
tion from  the  whole  world  to  the  great  commercial  city 
of  the  South,  where  health  and  prosperity  is  most  abun- 
dantly found." 

Hon.  James  0.  Harrison,  a  Douglas  Democrat,  made 
an  able  speech  at  Lexington,  Kentucky, — at  the  door 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  169 

of  Breckinridge,  as  it  were, — and  said  he  could  sustain 
the  following  five  propositions  : — 

1.  That  there  was  a  Disunion  party  South  prior  to  the 
Charleston  and  Baltimore  Conventions. 

2.  That  the  party  entered  the  convention  with  the 
design  of  dividing  the  Democracy  on  the  slave  line,  as 
a  preparatory  step  to  Disunion. 

3.  That  it  aided  in  the  formation  of  a  Southern  sec- 
tional platform,  plausible,  but  dangerously  delusive,  on 
which  said  party  knew  national   Democrats  neither 
would  nor  could  unite. 

4.  That  this  sectional  platform  has  been  adopted  by 
the  Secessionists,  and  that  the  Disunionists  now  stand 
on  it. 

5.  (A  natural  sequence.)     That  the  tendency  of  the 
platform  is  to  Disunion,  by  bringing  on  an  irrepressible 
conflict ;  and  that  this  tendency  is  increased  by  the  Dis- 
unionists who  stand  on  it. 

General  John  McQueen,  a  Eepresentative  in  Congress 
from  South  Carolina,  made  a  speech  on  the  4th  of  July, 
at  Bennettsville,  in  that  State,  of  which  a  sketch  is 
given  in  the  local  paper, — Son  of  Temperance.  It 
says, — 

"  He  reviewed  the  Federal  politics  of  the  day,  cor- 
dially endorsed  the  nomination  of  Breckinridge  and 
Lane  for  the  Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency, — said 
they  were  good  and  true  men  for  the  South  to  support, 
and  would  maintain  the  constitutional  rights  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  should  be  supported  by  every  Soutn- 
ern  man. 


16 


170  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

"  If  they  submit,  and  permit  Lincoln  to  be  inaugurated 
President,  without  resisting  and  seceding  from  the 
Union,  in  such  an  event  he;  for  one,  believed  that  we 
were  a  degraded  people,  and  a  thousand  times  more  than 
the  colonies  were  under  Great  Britain.  He  counselled 
secession  of  the  South  from  the  Union  if  a  Black  Re- 
publican was  elected  President  of  the  Government ;  for 
it  would  be  an  open  declaration  of  an  irrepressible  con- 
flict against  our  peculiar  institutions,  which  are  as  dear 
to  us  as  our  lives." 

Hon.  Lawrence  M.  Keitt,  another  Kepresentative  in 
Congress  from  South  Carolina,  in  a  letter,  said, — 

"But,  should  the  Black  Kepublican  party  obtain 
power,  and  the  South  remain  passive, — what  then? 
While  I  invoke  co-operation, — while  I  appeal  to  the 
States  around  us  to  be  true  to  their  honor, — yet,  if 
these  fail,  I  will  counsel  this  State  alone,  if  necessary, 
and  at  all  hazards,  to  secede  from  the  Union. 

****** 

"  This  Union  is  just  as  travellers  tell  us  many  East- 
ern habitations  are, — a  palace  to  look  upon,  all  fair  on 
its  outside,  and  presenting  the  appearance  of  a  house 
that  should  last  for  generations ;  but  the  master  puts 
his  walking-stick  or  his  boot-heel  through  the  rafters, 
and  he  finds  that  the  white  ants  have  eaten  all  the  sub- 
stance of  the  timbers,  and  that  all  that  he  sees  about  him 
is  a  coating  of  paint,  which  an  intrusive  blow  may  dis- 
perse in  a  cloud  of  dust.  The  skirting-boards  have 
already  perished;  the  rafters  are  now  ready  to  tumble 
in." 

A  few  extracts  from  some  Breckinridge-Yancey  papers 
in  the  South,  in  this  connection,  may  throw  further 
light  on  this  plot  against  the  Union  : — 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  171 

(From  the  Camden  [Ala.]  Democrat.) 

"We  run  up  our  flag  to-day  for  Breckinridge  and 
Lane,  the  Democratic  nominees  for  President  and  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States.  We  have  unwaver- 
ingly contended  for  the  last  ten  years  that  it  would  be 
better  for  all  concerned  to  make  two  or  more  distinct 
Governments  of  the  territory  constituting  the  United 
States  of  America, — and  that  such  will  ultimately  be 
done  with  fairness  and  justice  to  every  section  of  the 
Union ;  and,  believing  that  the  party  to  which  we  be- 
long is  the  only  reliable  one  to  carry  out  this  measure 
and  secure  to  our  own  section  all  her  rights,  we  intend 
to  battle  for  its  principles  to  the  fullest  extent  of  our 
ability." 

(From  the  Montgomery  [Ala.]  Mail.) 

"Run  three  Presidential  tickets  against  Lincoln, 
thereby  giving  Lincoln  the  best  chance  for  election. 
After  Lincoln  is  elected,  some  Southern  communities 
— most  of  them,  perhaps — will  refuse  to  let  a  post- 
master appointed  under  his  administration  take  pos- 
session of  the  office.  Then  the  United  States  author- 
ities will  be  interposed  to  'enforce  the  laws.'  Then  the 
United  States  authorities  will  either  be  shot  down,  or 
they  will  shoot  somebody  down.  Then  the  people  of 
the  community  will  rise  up  against  the  United  States 
Government,  and  will  be  sustained  by  neighboring  com- 
munities, until  civil  war,  with  all  its  horrid  butcheries, 
envelops  the  land  in  blood  and  carnage." 

(From  the  Cahawba  [Ala.]  Slave-IIolder.) 

"  THE  SOUTHERN  TICKET. — We  hoist  to-day,  as  our 
choice  for  nominated  candidates  for  the  Presidency  and 
Vice-Presidency,  the  names  of  John  C.  Breckinridge, 
of  Kentucky,  and  Joe  Lane,  of  Oregon. 

"Our  selection  is  made  with  special  reference  to  the 
principles  we  have  heretofore  advocated,  the  most  pro- 
minent and  controlling  of  which  is  a  union  of  the  South- 
ern people  for  the  protection  of  our  Southern  institu- 
tions." 


172  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

(From  the  Mobile  Mercury,  April,  1859.) 

"  The  times  are  now  ripe  for  the  organization  of  a 
political  movement  in  the  slave-holding  States,  irre- 
spective, of  course,  of  all  old  party  designations ;  and 
there  are  peculiar  reasons  why  such  a  movement  should 
be  undertaken  now  and  here.  Indeed,  we  are  credibly 
informed  that  conferences  have  already  been  held  by 
leading  patriotic  gentlemen  of  this  city,  of  all  parties, 
and  the  plans  of  Southern  organization  have  been  set 
on  foot  and  almost  'matured,  preparatory  to  action.  We 
earnestly  hope  the  good  work  may  go  on,  and  speedily. 

"  The  country,  we,  repeat,  is  ripe  for  the  movement, 
and,  if  judiciously  inaugurated,  it  will  sweep  over  the 
land  with  a  force  that  no  opposition  will  be  able  to  check. 
We  therefore  caution  our  friends  in  the  country  every- 
where to  be  prepared  for  it,  and  to  keep  themselves 
from  all  entangling  alliances  which  may  hinder  them 
from  joining  in  it  untrammelled." 

The  Charleston  Mercury,  in  April,  1859,  said  of  the 
Democratic  Presidential  Convention  of  1860,  "  Unless 
it  is  limited  exclusively  to  delegates  from  the  South,  it 
will  be  no  convention  of  the  Democratic  party.11  How 
truly  it  spoke  the  Disunion  sentiment,  late  events  have 
fully  shown. 

(From  the  New  Orleans  Delta,  April,  1859.) 

"  In  1860  the  South  and  the  North  are  to  be  arrayed 
in  deadly  contest ;  the  battle  of  the  sections  is  then  to 
be  fought  for  the  last  time,  and  its  issues  are  to  be  de- 
cisive of  our  fate." 


(From  the  Montgomery  Advertiser,  March,  1859.) 

"It  is  important  that  we  should  send  such  men  to 
represent  us  (in  Congress)  as  possess  the  ability  to  com- 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  173 


bat  the  approaches  of  Republicanism,  and  the  nerve  to 
secede  from  Washington  in  case  Abolitionism  should 
install  one  of  its  leaders  in  the  Executive  mansion  of 
the  nation.  It  is  important  to  the  South,  also,  that  her 
delegation  should  present  a  united  front  of  State-Eights 
Democrats,  for  in  the  principles  and  the  doctrines  of  the 
State-Rights  Democracy  rests  the  hope  of  the  South,  in 
the  Union  OR  OUT  OF  IT." 

(From  the  Eufaula  [Ala.]  Gazette,  Marcn,  1859.) 

"  Could  we  all  think  and  feel  alike,  were  our  inte- 
rests identical  and  our  occupations  similar,  we  might 
adopt  a  common  government  without  detriment  to 
either ;  but,  as  we  are  different  in  all  these,  it  becomes 
us  to  prepare  for  an  immediate  withdrawal  from  the 
alliance  which  has  hitherto  held  us  together ;  and  we 
hold  it  to  be  the  first  duty,  as  it  should  be  the  first 
object,  of  Southern  statesmen  and  the  Southern  press, 
to  inaugurate  a  Southern  Confederacy,  AND  THEREBY 

ESTABLISH   SOUTHERN   INDEPENDENCE." 

(From  the  Eufaula  Spirit  of  the  South,  March,  1859.) 

"  The  North  and  South,  agreeing  about  some  things 
and  differing  about  others,  made  a  Union  for  their 
benefit  and  a  Constitution  for  their  common  govern- 
ment. The  Supreme  Court,  who,  according  to  the 
established  creed  of  the  North,  are  the  final  expounders 
of  the  Constitution,  say  that  by  its  provisions  slavery 
is  protected  in  the  Territories ;  but  the  greater  portion 
of  the  North  denounces  that  decision  openly,  while  the 
remainder  covertly  repudiate  it.  What  remains,  then, 
but  to  do  that  which  has  been  done  in  all  ages  and 
countries  by  sensible  and  right-minded  people  who 
have  the  misfortune  to  differ  irreconcilably, — TO  SEPA- 
RATE?" 

(From  the  Charleston  Mercury,  May,  1859.) 

"A  revolution  is,  therefore,  inevitable.  Submission 
or  resistance  will  alike  establish  it.  The  old  Union — 

15* 


174  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

the  Union  of  the  Constitution,  of  equal  rights  between 
sovereign  States — is  abolished.  It  is  gone  forever; 
strangled  by  consolidation,  and  is  now  the  instrument 
of  centralism  to  establish  an  irresponsible  despotism  of 
the  North  over  the  South.  To  break  up  the  present 
Union  and  establish  another  of  the  South  alone,  is  no 
greater  revolution  than  that  which  now  exists.  In 
fact,  it  will  be  a  lesser  change.  Let  the  struggle  come 
when  it  may,  the  South,  to  achieve  her  safety,  will 
have  to  trample  down  a  Union  party  in  the  track  of 
her  political  emancipation." 

Knoxville  Whig,  Aug.  25,  I860. 

This  conspiracy  is  not  complete  without  the  following 
letter  from  Senator  Yulee  to  one  Finegan,  a  member 
of  the  "  Sovereignty  Conference"  of  Florida : — 

"  WASHINGTON,  Jan.  7, 1861. 

"My  DEAR,  SIR: — On  the  other  side  is  a  copy  of 
resolutions  adopted  at  a  consultation  of  the  Senators 
from  the  seceding  States, — in  which  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Mississippi,  and  Florida, 
were  present. 

"The  idea  of  the  meeting  was  that  the  States  should 
go  out  at  once,  and  provide  for  the  early  organization 
of  a  Confederate  Government,  not  later  than  15th  Feb- 
ruary. This  time  is  allowed  to  enable  Louisiana  and 
Texas  to  participate.  It  seemed  to  be  opinion  [sic] 
that  if  we  left  here,  force,  loan,  and  volunteer  bills 
might  be  passed,  which  would  put  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
immediate  condition  for  hostilities;  whereas  if  [sic]  by 
remaining  in  Qur  places  until  the  4th  of  March,  it  is 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  175 

thought  we  can  keep  the  hands  of  Mr.  Buchanan  tied, 
and  disable  the  ^Republicans  from  effecting  any  legis- 
lation which  will  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  incoming 
Administration. 

"  The  resolutions  will  be  sent  by  the  delegation  to  the 
President  of  the  Convention.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
find  Mr.  Mallory  this  morning.  Hawkins  [the  member 
from  Florida]  is  in  Connecticut.  I  have  therefore 
thought  it  best  to  send  you  this  copy  of  the  reso- 
lutions. 

"  In  haste, 

"  Yours,  truly, 

"  D.  L.  YULEE. 

"JOSEPH  FIXEGAN,  Esq.,  Sovereignty  Conference,  Tallahassee,  Fla." 

Now,  it  will  be  seen  that  this  important  letter,  which 
breathes  throughout  the  spirit  of  the  conspirator,  in 
reality  lets  us  into  the  most  important  of  the  nume- 
rous secret  conclaves  which  the  plotters  of  TREASON 
then  held  in  the  national  capital.  It  was  then,  as  it 
appears,  that  they  determined  to  strike  the  blow,  and 
precipitate  the  Cotton  States  into  secession.  And  yet 
the  perjured  villains  resolved  that  it  would  be  impru- 
dent for  them  openly  to  withdraw  from  Congress,  as  in 
that  case  Congress  might  pass  "  force,  loan,  and  volun- 
teer bills,  which  would  put  Mr.  Lincoln  in  immediate 
condition  for  hostilities." 

The  substance  of  this  whole  affair  is,  that  a  knot  of 


176  BKOWKLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Senatorial  traitors,  fourteen  in  number,  representing 
seven  Cotton  States,  so  late  as  January  and  February, 
1861,  sat  in  their  seats  in  the  Senate-Chamber,  under 
an  oath  administered  on  the  Holy  Evangelists  of  Al- 
mighty God  to  support  the  Constitution  and  laws  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  good  faith  to  act  as  the  con- 
fidential and  constitutional  advisers  of  the  President, 
and  yet  were  wickedly,  corruptly,  and  secretly  plotting 
the  overthrow  of  the  Government.  In  the  daytime 
they  went  through  the  forms  of  obeying  their  oaths, 
but  after  night  they  set  their  own  swearing  at  defiance ! 
The  perjured  scoundrels — for  such  they  are — ought  to 
have  their  foul  tongues  cut  out,  and  each  and  all  of 
them  should  be  taken  back  to  the  District  of  Columbia, 
and  hung  by  the  negroes  recently  set  free  by  Congress  ! 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  177 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WHICH  SIDE  IS  THE  LORD  ON? — TEACHINGS  OF  SECESSION  CLERGY- 
MEN— PRAYER  OF  REV.  MR.  BALDWIN PROVIDENCES  OF  GOD  BE- 
FORE AND  SINCE  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THIS  GREAT  CONSPIRACY 

THE     SOUTH     HAS     HAD    A    PREPONDERATING     INFLUENCE     IN     THE 

CONTROL    OF     THE     GOVERNMENT — GOD     HAS     ARRANGED     THE     CON- 
DITIONS   OF    THIS     GREAT     DEAMA    TO    FAVOR    THE    GOVERNMENT    OF 

THE  UNITED  STATES UNION  VICTORIES  OF  1861 CITIES  AND  TOWNS 

TAKEN    FROM    THE    SOUTH,    BY    DIVINE    PERMISSION,  IN    1862 — GAM- 
BLING-HELLS    IN     RICHMOND PROFANE     SWEARING    AND    DRINKING 

IN    THE    REBEL    ARMY WICKEDNESS    OF    THE     SOUTHERN     CLERGY 

LOSS    OF    REBEL    GENERALS. 

FROM  the  very  beginning  of  this  WICKED  REBELLION, 
the  advocates  of  Secession  and  of  a  war  upon  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  have  arrogantly 
claimed  that  God  was  on  their  side, — pointing  to  the 
evidences  of  divine  Providence  favoring  the  Southern 
side  of  the  GREAT  CONSPIRACY.  Secession  clergymen, 
roused  by  the  excitement  of  the  war,  have  brought  re- 
proach upon  religion,  in  many  portions  of  the  South, 
both  by  the  bitterness  of  their  sermons  and  the  wicked- 
ness of  their  sentiments.  It  is  by  no  means  an  un- 
common thing  to  hear  Secession  chaplains,  and  other 
clergymen,  teach  soldiers  from  the  pulpit,  and  assure 
the  relatives  of  soldiers  in  the  event  of  their  death, 
that  fhe  cause  in  which  they  fall,  battling  for  the  inde- 


178  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

pendence  of  the  South  in  opposition  to  the  Vandal 
hordes  of  the  North,  constitutes  a  passport  sufficient  to 
introduce  them  to  all  that  exceeding  weight  of  joy  at 
God's  right  hand ! 

On  the  occasion  of  the  inauguration  of  Eye-Shaw 
G.  Harris  as  Governor  of  Tennessee,  which  took  place 
in  the  Capitol  at  Nashville  in  October,  1861,  a  prayer 
was  offered  up  by  Mr.  Baldwin,  a  Methodist  minister, 
eminent  as  an  orator  and  an  author,  though  crazy  upon 
the  subject  of  "  Southern  rights,"  of  a  blasphemous 
character,  most  decidedly.  He  opened  in  these  words : 
— "  WE  THANK  THEE,  0  LORD,  FOR  HAVING  INAUGU- 
RATED THIS  EEVOLUTION!"  The  rest  of  the  prayer 
was  in  keeping  with  the  opening  sentence.  It  was 
blaspheming  God,  and  reviling  Him,  by  denying  and 
ridiculing  His  perfections  and  word,  and  by  ascribing 
to  Him  work  base  and  sinful.  What  has  been  done  by 
the  agency  of  the  devil,  is  ascribed  to  the  finger  of 
God,  in  this  unpardonable  prayer.  An  evil  spirit,  sub- 
ject to  the  powers  of  Satan,  influenced  certain  bad 
men  in  the  South,  evidently  possessed  of  devils,  to  pre- 
cipitate the  Cotton  States  into  this  revolution.  All 
the  agency  that  God  had  in  the  matter  was  to  permit 
these  devils  to  enter  into  these  Secessionists,  just  as  He 
permitted  them  to  enter  the  herd  of  swine  and  pre- 
cipitate them  into  the  Sea  of  Galilee !  May  the  suc- 
cessors of  these  devils,  who  have  entered  into  the 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  179 

Southern  leaders  in  this  rebellion,  precipitate  them 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico ! 

When  Mr.  Baldwin  offered  up  this  remarkable 
prayer,  he  should  have  done  it  at  one  of  the  various 
very  ancient  altars  that  existed  at  Athens,  the  Greek 
metropolis,  upon  which  was  the  inscription,  "  To  THE 
UNKNOWN  GOD,"  whom  the  Athenians  ignorantly  wor- 
shipped. An  ancient  sect  has  long  since  taught  us 
that  there  are  two  Gods; — the  one,  the  author  of  all 
good,  the  other,  the  author  of  all  evil.  It  was  this 
evil  god  who  "inaugurated  this  revolution."  What 
a  calmly  argumentative  and  sweetly  persuasive  prayer 
this,  to  offer  up  to  a  God  of  order,  justice,  and  mercy, 
opposed  to  falsehood,  plunder,  and  murder  ! 

But,  gentle  reader,  let  us  look  calmly  at  the  provi- 
dences of  God,  as  developed  before  and  since  the  intro- 
duction of  this  great  conspiracy.  If  the  South  had 
been  wantonly  oppressed  and  wickedly  proscribed  by 
the  North,  and  if  the  North  had  "inaugurated"  the 
war,  it  would  have  been  natural  to  expect  the  God  of 
right  and  justice  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  South. 
But  up  to  1861  the  South  had  furnished  seven  out  of 
the  thirteen  Presidents,  and  enjoyed  twelve  out  of  the 
eighteen  terms,  or  forty-eight  out  of  the  seventy-two 
years  since  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution ; 
thus  leaving  the  Presidential  office  to  be  occupied  by 
Northern  men  only  twenty-four  years,  or  just  one- 
third  of  the  time ! 


180 


BROWNLOW  S   EXPERIENCES 


And,  to  show  the  advantage  the  South  has  been 
allowed  to  enjoy  over  and  above  what  she  was  entitled 
to,  I  subjoin  a  table  of  Electoral  votes  which  the  fifteen 
Southern  States  and  the  nineteen  Northern  States  cast 
in  the  Presidential  election  of  1860. 


SOUTHERN    STATES. 

Alabama 9 

Arkansas 4 

Delaware 3 

Florida 3 

Georgia , 10 

Kentucky 12 

Louisiana 6 

Maryland 8 

Mississippi 7 

Missouri 9 

North  Carolina 10 

South  Carolina 8 

Tennessee 12 

Texas 4 

Virginia 15 


120 


NORTHERN    STATES. 

California 4 

Connecticut 6 

Illinois 11 

Indiana 13 

Iowa 4 

Maine 8 

Massachusetts 13 

Michigan 6 

Minnesota 4 

New  Hampshire 5 

New  Jersey 7 

New  York 35 

Ohio 23 

Oregon 3 

Pennsylvania 27 

Khode  Island 4 

Vermont, 5 

Wisconsin 5 


183 


Total  Electoral  vote 303 

Necessary  for  an  election  of  President 152 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  181 

But  another  and  a  strong  point  is  this.  Five  of  the 
Southern  Presidents  each  served  two  terms,  or  eight 
years ;  while  no  Northern  man  has  ever  been  allowed 
a  re-election.  Besides,  two  Presidents,  Messrs.  Van 
Buren  and  Buchanan,  were  "Northern  men  with 
Southern  principles;"  and  this,  in  effect,  gives  eight 
years  more  to  the  South, — making  fifty-six  years  in 
which  they  have  had  almost  supreme  control,  and 
leaving  but  sixteen  years  during  which  the  Government 
has  been  administered,  even  nominally,  by  Northern 
Presidents.  But  during  these  sixteen  years  the  two 
hundred  and  sixty-three  thousand  slave-owners  of  the 
South  had  a  preponderating  influence  in  the  affairs  of 
the  nation,  and  in  shaping  public  policy. 

So  long  as  the  country  was  satisfied  with  this  state 
of  things,  the  political  leaders  of  the  South,  of  course, 
did  not  complain ;  but  the  moment  the  people  ven- 
tured, by  perfectly  legal  and  constitutional  means,  to 
elect  Mr.  Lincoln, — a  man  who,  if  not  representing  the 
clearly-revealed  sentiments  of  the  majority,  was  at 
least  the  choice  of  that  majority, — the  Southern  poli- 
ticians revolted,  and,  in  eleven  of  the  fifteen  Southern 
States,  passed  ordinances  of  Secession. 

An  able  writer,  in  reviewing  the  events  of  the  last 
year,  in  a  religious  periodical  of  high  standing,  to- 
gether with  the  circumstances  which  preceded  and  pre- 
pared the  way  for  them,  develops  the  guiding  hand  of 
Providence,  and  the  arguments  in  favor  of  His  being 

16 


182  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

on  the  side  of  the  National  Government.  How  won- 
derfully has  God  arranged  all  the  conditions  of  this 
great  drama,  to  favor  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  and  the  millions  of  loyal  citizens  adhering 
thereto  !  I  present  these  views,  and  assure  the  reader 
that  he  will  profit  by  their  perusal : — 

"I.  I  notice,  first,  the  abundant  cotton-crop  of  1859- 
60,  by  which  the  wants  of  Europe  and  the  world  were 
more  fully  supplied  than  ever  before  : — 

In  1856  the  crop  amounted  to 3,529,841  bales. 

In  1857         "  "  2,939,519      « 

In  1858         "  "  2,113,962      « 

In  1859         "  "  3,851,481      " 

In  1860         "  "  4,600,000      " 

"  Of  this  Great  Britain  received, — 

In  1856 l,038,886,304pounds. 

In  1857 996,318,896   " 

In  1858 1,034,342,176   " 

In  1859 1,225,989,072  " 

In  1860 1,390,935,752   " 

"  These  tables  show  the  enormous  yield  in  the  last  year 
named,  and  also  to  what  extent  Great  Britain,  by  far  the 
largest  consumer  in  the  world,  was  supplied.  There 
was,  in  addition  to  this  immense  amount  of  raw  mate- 
rial, an  unprecedented  stock  of  manufactured  goods 
seeking  a  market  or  stored  up  in  all  the  marts  of  the 
world. 

"  II.  Next  we  notice  the  extraordinary  crops  of  grain 
in  this  country  in  1859, 1860,  and  1861,  which  afforded 
not  only  abundance  at  a  cheap  rate  for  our  own  people 
during  the  war,  but  a  largely-augmented  amount  for 
European  consumption,  and  this  amount  all  the  while 
steadily  increasing,  thus  turning  the  current  of  ex- 
changes in  our  favor, —  a  financial  phenomenon  not 
before  witnessed  in  this  country  for  many  years.  The 
following  table,  showing  the  exportations  of  domestic 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  183 

produce,  principally  breadstuff's,  during  the  last  five 
years,  will  clearly  demonstrate  this  point: — 

In  1857  the  exports  were $61,803,235 

In  1858      "       53,949,703 

In  1859      "       59,929,531 

In  1860    ."       95,468,296 

In  1861      «       131,235,995 

"  III.  Another  most  important  circumstance  in  the 
work  of  preparing  the  nation  was  the  short  crop  in 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  generally  throughout  Eu- 
rope, during  the  years  1859,  1860,  1861,  and  1862,— 
their  lean  years  being  exactly  our  most  abundant  ones. 
Thus,  an  unexpected  and  unheard-of  increase  in  the 
demand  for  breadstuff's  from  this  country  sprang  up 
just  at  the  moment  when  war  was  involving  us  in  ex- 
traordinary expenses,  and  when  we  had  overflowing 
granaries  to  meet  the  timely  demand. 

"  IV.  In  consequence  of  this  happy  concurrence  of 
events,  several  millions  of  gold  came  tack  from  Europe 
in  exchange  for  breadstuff's  and  provisions  in  a  single 
week,  at  the  very  commencement  of  our  struggle;  and 
this'  process  went  on  for  several  months  or  nearly  a 
year,  by  which  our  financial  means  were  greatly  in- 
creased, and  our  Government  and  people  encouraged 
and  sustained,  while  the  conspirators  were  correspond- 
ingly depressed  and  disheartened.  The  truth  of  this 
will  more  readily  appear  from  the  following  tables, 
showing  the  movement  of  specie  and  bullion  between 
this  and  foreign  countries  during  the  last  five  years  : — 

In  1857  we  exported $44,360,174 


In  1859 
In  1860 
In  1861 

In  1857  we  im 
In  1858 
In  1859 
In  1860 
In  1861 

69  715  886 

42,191,171 

4,236,250 

ported  $12461799 

19  274,496 

7  434  789 

8,550,135 

..  44.439.859 

184  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

"  The  cotton  exported  to  Great  Britain,  in  1860, 
amounted  to  the  enormous  sum  of  two  hundred  and 
seventy  millions  of  dollars ;  and  yet,  notwithstanding 
no  cotton  went  forward  in  1861,  and  the  supply  was 
thus  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  cut  off,  a  kind  Provi- 
dence had  so  ordered  events  that  our  breadstuffs  and 
provisions  came  in  at  that  particular  juncture  to  serve 
as  a  medium  of  exchange  and  to  prevent  any  sudden 
and  overwhelming  revulsion  in  trade." 

In  a  review  of  the  battles  lost  and  won  in  this  war, 
it  is  plain  to  be  seen  which  army  has  the  approbation 
of  Providence.  I  herewith  give  the  dates  and  locali- 
ties of  these  battles ;  and  I  collect  them  from  official 
sources.  The  reader  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the 
contrast,  in  the  successes  and  defeats  of  the  respective 
armies : — 

Union  Victories,  1861, 

June  3 — Philippa. 

June  18 — Booneville. 

July  11 — Defeat  of  Pegram  by  Rosecrans. 

July  13— Carrick's  Ford,  (death  of  Garnett,  Rebel.) 

August  29— Hatteras  forts. 

September  11 — Rout  of  Floyd,  Gauley  Bridge. 

October  5 — Second  defeat  of  Rebels  at  Hatteras 

October  9 — Santa  Rosa  Island. 

October  12 — Repulse  at  Southwest  Pass. 

October  21 — Jeff  Thompson  defeated  at  Fredericktown. 

"          "  — Zollicoffer  repulsed  at  Camp  Wild  Cat. 
October  24 — Charge  of  Fremont's  Guard  at  Springfield,  Mo 
October  25 — Romney,  (Kelley  wounded.) 
November  7 — Port  Royal. 
December  13 — Camp  Alleghany,  Virginia. 
December  18 — 1600  Rebels  captured  by  Pope  in  Missouri. 
December  20 — Drainesville. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  185 

1862. 

Second  Rebel  repulse  at  Santa  Rosa. 
Humphrey  Marshall's  rout. 
Capture  of  Rebel  batteries  in  South  Carolina. 
Mill  Spring,  (Zollicoffer  killed.) 
Fort  Henry. 

Roanoke  Island,  2500  prisoners  taken. 

Fort  Donelson,  13,000  prisoners  taken,  besides  the  killed  and 
wounded. 

Island  No.  10. 
Pittsburg  Landing. 
Pea  Ridge,  Arkansas. 
Camden,  North  Carolina. 
Canby's,  at  Galeto,  N.M. 

Rebel  Victories,  1861. 

April  13 — Sumter. 

June  10— Big  Bethel. 

July  21— Bull  Run. 

August  9 — Wilson's  Creek. 

September  22 — Lexington. 

October  21— Massacre  of  Ball's  Bluff. 

November  7 — Belmont. 

1862,  NONE. 

Union  victories,  29;  Secession  victories,  7;  ratio, 
four  to  one, — against  a  people  one  of  whose  troops  can 
whip  five  of  the  enemy,  and  against  a  people  and 
army  who  have  the  Lord  on  their  side !  In  their 
future  prayers,  they  should  pray  to  be  saved  from 
their  friends  and  be  allowed  to  take  care  of  their 
enemies ! 

The  following-named  cities  and  towns  have,  with 
the  Lord's  permission,  been  taken  from  the  Seces- 
sionists by  the  Federalists,  since  the  commencement  of 

the  present  year,  1862,  to  May  7  : — 

10* 


186 


BEOWNLOW  S   EXPERIENCES 


Elizabeth  City,  N.C. 
Edenton,  N.C. 
Winton,  N.C. 
Bowling  Green,  Ky. 
Dover,  Tenn. 
Fayetteville,  Ark. 
Bentonville,  Ark. 
Martinsburg,  Va. 
Leetown,  Va. 
Lovettsville,  Va. 
Smithfield,  Va. 
Bolivar,  Va. 
Charlestown,  Va. 
Harper's  Ferry,  Va 
Big  Bethel,  Va. 
Paris,  Tenn. 
Huttonsville,  Va. 
Florence,  Ala. 
Cedar  Keys,  Fla. 
Springfield,  Mo. 
Eastport,  Miss. 
Columbus,  Ky. 
Leesburg,  Va. 
New  Orleans,  La. 
Huntsville,  Ala. 
Stevenson,  Ala. 
Tuscumbia,  Ala. 
Fredericksburg,  Va. 


Paintville,  Ky. 
Nashville,  Tenn. 
Clarksville,  Tenn 
Columbia,  Tenn. 
Savannah,  Tenn. 
Brunswick,  Ga. 
Fernandina,  Fla. 
San  Augustine,  Fla. 
Jacksonville,  Fla 
Manassas,  Va. 
Centerville,  Va. 
St.  Marys,  Ga. 
Berryville,  Ga. 
Winchester,  Va. 
Occoquan,  Va. 
Windsor,  Va. 
New  Madrid,  Mo. 
Point  Pleasant,  Mo. 
Hickman,  Ky. 
Newbern,  N.C. 
Beaufort,  N.C. 
Morehead  City,  N.C. 
Nashville,  Tenn. 
Baton  Rouge,  La. 
Decatur,  Ala. 
Florence,  Ala. 
Yorktown,  Va. 
Williamsburg,  Va. 


The  following  Kebel  forts  and  fortifications  have  also 
been  captured  since  the  1st  of  January  to  May  7,  1862 : 


Fort  Johnson,  Va. 

Fort  Beauregard,  Va. 

Fort  Evans,  Va. 

Pig's  Point  Battery,  Va. 

Shipping  Point  Battery,  Va. 

Cockpit  Point  Batteries,  Va. 

Fort  Clinch,  Fla. 

Fort  Henry,  Tenn. 

Fort  Donelson,  Tenn. 

Fort  St.  Mark,  Fla. 

Fort  St.  Philip. 

Fort  Jackson. 

Fort  Pike. 


Fort  Warren,  Fla. 
Fort  Macon,  N.C. 
Columbus  fortifications,  Ky. 
Bowling  Green  fortifications,  Ky 
Mill  Spring  fortifications,  Ky. 
Roanoke  Island  Batteries. 
Elizabeth  City  Batteries,  N.C. 
Fortifications  at  St.  Simons,  Ga. 
Fortifications  at  Manassas. 
Batteries  at  Acquia  Creek,  Va. 
Fort  Pulaski,  near  Savannah,  Ga. 
Rigolette. 


Do  the  clergymen  who  play  at  this  game  of  Secession 
brag  call  this  backing  up  one's  friends  ?     Besides  the 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  187 

cities  and  towns,  forts  and  fortifications,  named,  quite  a 
number  of  forts  on  the  Neuse  River  have  been  cap- 
tured. The  Federal  reverses  have  been  in  New 
Mexico  alone,  where  the  Secessionists  have  occupied 
three  or  four  evacuated  military  towns  and  posts,  of  no 
sort  of  importance,  unless  resorted  to  by  a  retreating 
foe,  as  they  will  be  when  these  rebels  take  to  flight ! 

There  is  now  in  the  South  a  mass  of  corruption  that 
would  poison  the  atmosphere  of  Paradise,  were  it  to 
come  in  contact  with  it.  Even  in  Eichmond,  their  seat 
of  Government,  if  their  own  papers  may  be  credited,  the 
most  abominable  wickedness  prevails.  Drunkenness, 
swindling,  fighting,  Sabbath-breaking,  and  gambling 
are  the  order  of  the  day.  The  correspondent  of  the 
Nashville  Union  and  American,  writing  from  Eich- 
mond, says  of  the  gambling-"  hells"  in  that  city: — 

"Eichmond  ought  to  be  called  Farobankopolis,  so 
numerous  are  its  gambling-' hells,'  especially  in  the 
region  of  the  Exchange  Hotel,  where  the  stranger  may 
see  on  one  side  of  the  street  a  fashionable  first-class 
establishment  which  towers  to  the  skies,  and  on  the 
other  may  enter  a  dozen  dens  of  the  vilest  description, 
known  to  the  '  fancy'  as  '  sweat-cloth  dead-falls.'  The 
extent  to  which  the  game  is  carried  in  Virginia  is  awful 
in  the  extreme.  Men  born  and  reared  in  the  first  circles 
of  society  may  be  seen  dealing  faro ;  and  it  is  mentioned 
as  a  curious  circumstance  that  nearly  every  one  of  the 


188  BEOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

great  faro-dealers,  whose  palatial  houses  and  magnifi- 
cent entertainments  made  them  a  national  reputation  in 
the  late  Union,  were  born  in  the  counties  of  Campbell 
and  Halifax  in  this  State.  The  '  leading  houses'  from 
New  York  to  New  Orleans,  and  at  all  the  watering- 
places,  are  owned  and  '  run'  by  Virginians.  All  classes 
and  conditions  of  society  frequent  them.  It  is  said  that 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  men  in  the  State  has  lost  a 
fortune  of  $200,000  at  faro ;  and  the  names  might  be 
given  of  many  talented  young  men  who  started  in  life 
under  the  best  possible  auspices,  but  died  behind  a  faro- 
table,  or  are  now  wrecked  and  literally  eaten  by  their 
mania  for  this  enticing  game." 

What  a  picture  of  the  morality  of  the  seat  of  a  Govern- 
ment having  monopolized  the  affections  and  protecting 
care  of  the  Almighty !  True,  they  have  brought  upon 
the  country,  but  recently  in  prosperity  and  happiness, 
the  complicated  miseries  of  war,  with  all  its  guilt,  its 
outrages  against  Heaven,  against  all  truth,  honesty, 
justice,  goodness, — nay,  against  all  the  principles  of 
social  happiness ;  but,  then,  they  find  an  apology  in  the 
alleged  fact  that  the  Lord  is  on  their  side !  With  an  irre- 
ligious Cabinet  at  Richmond,  and  a  regiment  of  whiskey- 
bloats  in  the  field  in  command  of  their  forces,  the  Fede- 
ral party  may  well  envy  the  privilege  of  these  "  Israelites 
in  whom  there  is  no  guile,"  and  mourn  that  no  land  of 
Canaan  has  been  promised  to  them  and  their  children ! 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  189 

In  view  of  the  profane  swearing  in  the  Rebel  army, 
and  its  almost  universal  prevalence  among  both  officers 
and  privates,  I  subjoin  an  extract  from  the  original 
"General  Order-Book"  of  General  WASHINGTON,  under 
date  of  the  29th  of  July,  1799.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  a 
chieftain  who  evidently  had  the  Lord  on  his  side : — 

"  Many  and  pointed  orders  have  been  issued  against 
that  unmeaning  and  abominable  custom  of  swearing; 
notwithstanding  which,  with  much  regret,  the  general 
observes  that  it  prevails,  if  possible,  more  than  ever. 
His  feelings  are  continually  wounded  by  the  oaths  and 
imprecations  of  the  soldiers  whenever  he  is  in  the  hear- 
ing of  them.  The  name  of  that  Being  from  whose 
bountiful  goodness  we  are  permitted  to  exist  and  enjoy 
the  comforts  of  life,  is  incessantly  imprecated  and  pro- 
faned in  a  manner  as  wanton  as  it  is  shocking.  For  the 
sake,  therefore,  of  religion,  decency,  and  order,  the  gene- 
ral hopes  and  trusts  that  officers  of  every  rank  will  use 
their  influence  and  authority  to  check  a  vice  which  is  as 
unprofitable  as  it  is  wicked  and  shameful. 

"  If  officers  would  make  it  an  invariable  rule  to  repri- 
mand— and,  if  that  does  not  do,  punish — soldiers  for 
offences  of  this  kind,  it  could  not  fail  of  having  the 
desired  effect." 

I  bring  the  charge  of  political  preaching  and  praying 
against  the  great  body  of  clergymen  in  the  South,  irre- 
spective of  sects ;  and  I  have  no  hesitancy  in  saying,  as 
I  now  do,  that  the  worst  class  of  men  who  make  tracks 
upon  Southern  soil  are  Methodist,  Presbyterian,  Baptist, 
and  Episcopal  clergymen,  and  at  the  head  of  these  for 
mischief  are  the  Southern  Methodists.  I  mean  to  say 
that  there  are  honorable  exceptions  in  all  these  churches; 


190  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

but  the  moral  mania  of  Secession  has  been  almost  uni- 
versally prevalent  among  the  members  of  the  sacred 
profession.  A  majority  of  the  clergy  have  acted  upon 
the  principle  that  the  kingdom  of  their  Divine  Master 
is  "of  this  world;"  and,  as  a  consequence,  too  many  of 
them  have  embarked  in  fighting,  lying,  and  drinking 
mean  whiskey.  The  influence  and  example  of  these 
men  in  the  South  have  ruined  the  Churches  and  severed 
them  into  fragments,  and  it  will  take  years  of  fasting 
and  prayer  to  heal  the  divisions  in  the  Churches  and  to 
reconstruct  them. 

But  my  object  in  this  chapter  is  to  demonstrate,  by 
facts  and  figures,  that  God  is  not  on  the  side  of  this 
rebellion,  and  that  the  evidence  He  affords  of  the  part 
He  is  acting  goes  to  show  that  He  is  on  the  side  of  the 
Federal  Government.  Look  at  the  defeat  and  death  of 
the  Eebel  generals  : — 

"  The  Rebel  generals  have  had  a  hard  time  of  it 
during  the  war.  Garnett  was  killed  at  Carrick's  Ford ; 
Burton  and  Bee  were  killed  at  Manassas ;  Zollicoffer 
was  killed  at  Fishing  Creek ;  McCulloch,  Mclntosh,  and 
Slack  were  killed  at  Pea  Ridge;  A.  Sidney  Johnston 
was  killed  at  Pittsburg  Landing ;  P.  St.  George  Cocke 
killed  himself  at  Richmond ;  Tilghman  was  captured  at 
Fort  Henry;  Buckner  was  captured  at  Fort  Donelson; 
Bushrod  Johnston  was  captured  with  Buckner,  and, 
violating  his  parole,  escaped;  Mackall,  Gantt,  and 
Walker  were  taken  at  Island  No.  10;  Floyd  and  Pillow 
are  suspended  in  disgrace,  for  running  away  from  Fort 
Donelson;  Twiggs,  Fauntleroy,  Jackson,  and  Bonham 
resigned ;  Grayson  died." 


AMONG  THE  REBELS.  191 


CHAPTEK  XIV. 

SPEECH  OF  W.  G.  BROWNLOW,  DELIVERED  IN  KNOXVILLE,  IN  OCTOBER, 
1861,  BEFORE  THE  LATE  PRESIDENTIAL  ELECTION,  BEFORE  THE  BELL- 
AND-EVERETT  CLUB PROVES  A  CONSPIRACY  AGAINST  THE  GOVERN- 
MENT BY  THE  BRECKINRIDGE  DEMOCRACY CONCEDES  THE  ELECTION 

OF  LINCOLN,  BUT  DENIES  THAT  TO  BE  A  SUFFICIENT  CAUSE  FOR  DIS- 
SOLVING   THE    UNION THE    SPEAKER    DECLARED  FOR    THE  UNION  AT 

ALL  HAZARDS — MY  LAST  INTERVIEW  WITH  JOHN  BELL. 

GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  BELL-AND-EVERETT  CLUB,  AND 

FELLOW-CITIZENS  : — 

THE  Bible  tells  us,  in  reference  to  a  high  and  holy 
theme,  that  "  day  unto  day  uttereth  speech,  and  night 
unto  night  showeth  knowledge."  This  is  emphatically 
true  in  regard  to  the  Presidential  election.  The  de- 
velopments of  every  day  and  night  add  strength  to  the 
conviction  that  the  Presidential  contest  has  narrowed 
down  to  a  choice  between  John  Bell  and  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. Breckinridge  has  been  distanced  at  the  start; 
he  let  down  the  first  heat,  and  it  is  the  very  madness 
of  folly  to  talk  about  electing  him.  The  leaders  of  the 
Democratic  party  who  procured  his  nomination  by  a 
rebellious  faction  at  Baltimore,  took  that  method  of 
accomplishing  a  long-cherished  object, — the  dissolution 
of  this  Union  and  the  "  precipitating  of  the  Cotton 
States  into  a  revolution." 


192  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Douglas,  too,  is  out  of  the  question — really  not  in  the 
race.  He  may  carry  a  few  of  the  Northwestern  States, 
and,  I  think,  will  do  so ;  but  his  election  is  impossible. 
His  friends  desire  the  defeat  of  Lincoln,  first,  because 
he  is  a  sectional  candidate,  as  they  say,  running  upon 
the  Nigger  issue  alone ;  and,  next,  because  he  holds  the 
position  of  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  by  virtue  of 
the  prominence  given  to  him  by  Buchanan,  Breckin- 
ridge,  and  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet,  who  ran 
him  against  Douglas  for  the  United  States  Senate,  and 
brought  the  whole  patronage  of  the  Government  to 
bear  in  his  favor.  Intelligent  Douglas  men  see  that 
Bell  is  the  only  man  who  can  now  defeat  Lincoln.  They 
see  that  Bell  will  carry  nearly  all  the  Southern  States, 
if  the  Breckinridge  party  are  not  bent  upon  the  disso- 
lution of  the  Union,  and  their  conservatism  and 
devotion  to  the  Union  will  finally  lead  them  to  the 
support  of  Bell. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks  I  will  proceed  to 
address  you  upon  the  subject,  not  of  Mr.  Bell's  record, 
but  of  the  record  of  Breckinridge  and  Lane,  and  of  the 
merits  of  the  party  putting  them  forth  as  candidates. 

I  charge,  first  of  all,  that  Buchanan's  is  the  most 
corrupt  and  profligate  administration  ever  known  to 
this  Government  since  its  organization ;  nay,  that  ours 
is  the  most  corrupt  Government  in  the  civilized  world, 
xnd  that  this  corruption  and  profligacy  have  grown  up 
under  Democratic  rule ;  for,  with  the  exception  of  four 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  193 

years  under  Taylor  and  Fillmore,  the  Democrats  have 
had  the  control  of  the  Government  for  the  last  twenty- 
four  years. 

In  1856,  when  out  of  power,  Buchanan  denounced 
the  expenditures  of  $40,000,000  under  Fillmore  as  an 
outrage,  in  an  electioneering  letter  he  put  forth,  and 
said  that  an  honest  people  ought  not  to  submit  to  it. 
In  power,  when  clothed  with  authority  to  correct  these 
abuses,  he  expended  double  the  amount;  for  in  one  year 
after  he  was  inaugurated  he  increased  the  public  ex- 
penditures to  $80,000,000.  Here  was  economy  with  a 
vengeance !  Nay,  he  found  a  surplus  of  $20,000,000 
in  the  treasury,  and  not  only  used  that  for  corrupt 
purposes,  but  has  borrowed  until  the  outstanding  public 
debt  is  the  rise  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars. 

But,  it  may  be  inquired,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with 
the  voting  for  or  against  Breckinridge  and  Lane? 
Much,  every  way.  Breckinridge  is  the  tail-end  of  this 
miserable  administration,  has  been  connected  with  its 
Cabinet  councils  from  the  beginning,  and  is  now  its 
pet  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  Old  Joe  Lane  has 
stood  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate  for  the  last  three 
years  and  defended  its  villainous  measures,  however 
jaonstrous  they  have  been.  Both  of  these  men  if  elected 
will  seek  to  hide  its  revolting  deformities,  if,  indeed, 
they  do  not  carry  out  the  same  lying  and  thieving 
policy.  We  need  a  change.  I  am  sick  of  seeing  it 
paraded  in  foreign  journals  that  the  President  of  the 


194  BROWHLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

United  States  is  a  thief  and  a  liar.  Mr.  Buchanan  has 
been  convicted  of  lying  and  of  hiding  for  thieves,  aa 
well  as  of  advising  them  to  steal  from  the  Government, 
by  the  sworn  testimony  of  various  men  of  his  own  party 
before  the  Covode  Committee. 

As  a  general  thing,  the  Breckinridge  speakers  pass 
all  this  over  as  unworthy  of  notice.  Whilthom,  the 
State  Elector,  does  meet  it,  it  is  true,  by  charging  that 
John  Bell  and  Judge  Douglas  voted  for  the  appropria- 
tions, and  thereby  placed  money  within  the  reach  of 
Buchanan  and  his  dishonest  office-holders.  This  is  a 
defence  with  a  vengeance ! 

But  it  will  be  said  that  these  are  mere  assertions. 
Let  us,  then,  have  the  proof.  Here  it  is ;  and  it  is  high 
Democratic  authority,  and  will  not  be  called  in  ques- 
tion : — 

"When  I  first  entered  Congress,  in  1843,  the  ex- 
penses of  the  Government  were  only  thirty  millions  per 
annum.  The  country  had  gone  through  the  expensive 
Mexican  War,  with  sixty-three  thousand  soldiers  in  the 
field,  for  thirty  millions,  and  now,  in  time  of  peace,  the 
estimates  are  seventy-three  millions!  He  believed 
forty  millions  an  abundance  for  the  national  expense." 
— Hon.  A.  H.  Stephens. 

"This  Government,  sixty-nine  years  of  age,  scarcely 
out  of  its  swaddling-clothes,  is  making  more  corrupt 
uses  of  money  in  proportion  to  the  amount  collected 
from  the  people,  as  I  honestly  believe,  than  any  other 
Government  on  the  habitable  globe." — Hon.  Andrew 
Johnson,  of  Tennessee. 

11 1  think  it  not  saying  too  much  to  declare  that  this 
country  has  gone  faster  and  further  in  ten  years,  in 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  195 

extravagance,  than  most  other  countries  have  gone  in 
centuries." — General  /Shields. 

"Before  God,  I  believe  this  to  be  the  most  corrupt 
Government  on  earth." — /Senator  Toombs. 

"  From  the  by-ways  and  the  highways  of  the  Govern- 
ment the  rottenness  of  corruption  sends  forth  an  insuf- 
ferable stench !  Why  are  the  people  so  patient  ?  Why 
slumbers  the  indignation  of  the  Democracy?" — Roger 
A.  Pry  or. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  object  to  Breckinridge  on  account 
of  his  anti-slavery  record;  and,  as  a  Southern  man,  I 
would  not  vote  for  him  even  if  John  Bell  were  not  a 
candidate,  and  the  race  were  between  him  and  Lincoln ! 
I  therefore  ask  of  you  the  privilege  of  exhibiting  his 
record : — 

Breckinridge  on  Intervention. 

"The  whole  theory  of  Congressional  intervention  is 
a  LIBEL  ON  OUR  INSTITUTIONS." — Congressional  Globe, 
vol.  xxix.  p.  442. 

John  C.  Breckinridge  is  the  nominee  of  a  party 
claiming  Congressional  protection. 

Breckinridge  s  Idea  of  the  Effect  on  the  Country  of  the 
Passage  of  the  Kansas  Bill. 

"No,  sir  !  if  we  reject  the  bill,  we  open  up  the  waters 
of  bitterness,  which  will  be  sealed  again  in  time,  but 
not  until  these  agitators  shall  have  rioted  a  while  in  the 
confusions  of  the  country.  We  blow  high  the  flames 
to  furnish  habitations  for  these  political  salamanders 
who  can  exist  only  in  the  fires  of  domestic  strife.  But 
if  it  passes,  the  question  will  be  removed  FOREVER 
from  the  halls  of  Congress,  and  deposited  with  the 
people,  who  can  settle  it  in  a  manner  answerable  to 


196    "  BROWNLOW'S   EXPEEIENCES 

their  own  views  of  interest  and  happiness." — Congres- 
sional Globe,  vol.  xxix. 

Breekinridge  s  Idea  of  the  Object  of  the  Kansas  Bill. 

"Then,  sir,  neither  the  purpose  nor  effect  of  the  bill 
is  to  legislate  slavery  into  Nebraska  and  Kansas ;  but 
its  effect  is  to  sweep  away  this  vestige  of  CONGRESSIONAL 
DICTATION  on  this  subject,  to  allow  the  free  citizens  of 
this  Union  to  enter  the  common  territory  with  the 
Constitution  and  the  bill  alone  in  their  hands,  and  to 

REMIT  THE  DECISION  OF  THEIR   RIGHTS  UNDER  BOTH  TO 

THE  COURTS  OF  THE  COUNTRY." — Congressional  Globe, 
vol.  xxix. 

Breekinridge  on  Slavery  in  Kansas. 

"Among  the  many  misrepresentations  of  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  Bill,  perhaps  none  is  more  flagrant  than  the 
charge  that  it  proposes  to  legislate  slavery  into  Kansas 
and  Nebraska.  Sir,  if  the  bill  contained  such  a  feature, 
rT  COULD  NOT  RECEIVE  MY  VOTE.  The  right  to  establish 
involves  the  right  to  prohibit;  and,  denying  both,  I 
would  vote  for  neither." — Congressional  Globe. 

J.  C.  Breekinridge  on  the  Kansas  Bill. 

"Did  not  the  non-slave-holding  States  (generally) 
insist  that  the  true  policy  was  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Territories  of  the  Union  by  act  of  Congress,  and, 
by  consequence,  insist  upon  applying  this  principle  to 
Utah  and  New  Mexico?  Did  not  the  slave-holding 
States,  on  the  contrary,  PLANTING  THEMSELVES  ON  THE 

GROUND   OF    FEDERAL   NON-INTERVENTION,  RESIST  THIS 

POLICY,  and,  by  consequence,  its  adoption  and  applica- 
tion to  those  Territories  ?  And,  after  a  long  and  fearful 
struggle,  did  not  the  LATTER  DOCTRINE  PREVAIL  ? — and 
was  it  not  carried  into  law  in  the  Utah  and  New  Mexico 
acts?  Did  not  the  public,  the  press,  conventions,  and 
State  hail  the  result  as  a  FINAL  SETTLEMENT,  IN  PRIN- 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  197 

CIPLE  AND  SUBSTANCE,  OF  THE  SUBJECT  OF  SLAVERY?" 

— Congressional  Globe,  vol.  xxix.  p.  441. 

If  this  is  not  sufficient  to  establish  the  anti-slavery 
proclivities  of  Breckinridge,  I  will  add  a  few  brief 
extracts  from  his  celebrated  Tippecanoe  speech  in 
1856,  delivered  before  ten  thousand  Free-Soilers,  whose 
votes  he  solicited  for  himself  and  Buchanan : — 

"I  AM  CONNECTED  WITH  NO  PARTY  THAT  HAS  FOR  ITS 

OBJECT  THE  EXTENSION  OF  SLAVERY,  nor  with  any  to 
prevent  the  people  of  a  State  or  Territory  from  deciding 
the  question  of  its  existence  with  them  for  themselves." 

The  speaker  continued: — 

"  I  happened  to  be  in  Congress  when  the  Nebraska 
Bill  passed,  and  gave  it  my  voice  and  vote,  and  because 
it  did  what  it  did, — viz. :  it  acknowledged  THE  RIGHT 

OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF  THE  TERRITORY  TO  SETTLE  THE 

QUESTION  FOR  THEMSELVES, — and  not  because  I  supposed 
— what  I  do  not  now  believe — that  it  legislated  slavery 
into  the  Territory.  The  Democratic  party  is  not  a  pro- 
slavery  party." 

Now,  the  Southern  wing  of  the  Democratic  party 
Indignantly  rejected  Douglas,  seceded  at  Baltimore,  and 
nominated  Breckinridge,  because  Douglas  held  the  very 
doctrines  herein  avowed  by  Breckinridge !  That  you 
may  see  them  in  a  still  more  ridiculous  light,  here  is 
the  resolution  adopted  by  the  Douglas  Democratic 
State  Convention  of  Illinois,  declaring, — 

"  Slavery,  if  it  exists  in  a  Territory,  DOES  NOT  DERIVE 
its  validity  from  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
but  is  a  MERE  MUNICIPAL  INSTITUTION  existing  in  such 
Territory  UNDER  THE  LAWS  THEREOF." 

17* 


198  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

In  1850,  while  Breckinridge  was  a  member  of  the 
Kentucky  Legislature,  lie  declared,  by  resolution, — 

"  Resolved,  By  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Kentucky,  That  the  question  of  SLAVERY 
in  the  TERRITORIES,  being  WHOLLY  LOCAL  and  DOMESTIC, 
belongs  to  the  PEOPLE  WHO  INHABIT  THEM." 

Will  some  one  of  the  Breckinridge  speakers  travelling 
through  this  country,  quoting  garbled  extracts  from 
Bell's  record  and  misrepresenting  that  able  and  expe- 
rienced statesman's  legislative  course,  show  a  shade  of 
difference  in  the  "  squatter  sovereignty"  principles  set 
forth  in  these  two  resolutions?  They  both  declare 
slavery  in  the  Territories  to  be  local  and  only  subject 
to  the  laws  thereof. 

But  "old  Joe  Lane,"  as  he  is  familiarly  called,  holds 
the  same  doctrine,  and  said,  in  one  of  his  speeches, — 

"The  question  of  slavery  is  a  most  perplexing  one, 
and  ought  not  to  be  agitated.  We  should  leave  it  with 
the  States  where  it  constitutionally  exists,  AND  THE 

PEOPLE  OF  THE  TERRITORIES,  TO  PROHIBIT  OR  ESTABLISH, 
AS  TO  THEM  MAY  SEEM  RIGHT  AND  PROPER." 

Here,  then,  are  two  rank  and  straight-out  squatters, 
who  have  out-squatted  Douglas,  taken  up  by  these 
Baltimore  Disunionists  and  Seceders  and  run  for  the 
Presidency  and  Vice-Presidency,  and  Douglas  uncere- 
moniously thrust  aside  because  he  was  a  squatter. 

Will  some  Breckinridge  orator  explain  why  it  was 
that  Douglas  was  set  aside  for  this  heresy,  and  two 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  199 

other  gentlemen  selected  holding  the  same  heresy  and 
hugging  it  closer?  The  answer  will  be,  "Because 
we  wanted  our  rights  under  the  Constitution."  What 
rights  ?  The  right  to  secede  from  the  Union  and  form 
a  Southern'  Confederacy.  Of  this  right  and  this  un- 
holy purpose  I  shall  have  something  to  say  before  I 
close. 

I  inquire  again,  why  was  Douglas  rejected  and 
Breckinridge  selected  by  the  intense  Southern  wing  of 
the  great  harmonious  ?  I  have  the  true  answer  to  this 
question,  given  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  on  the  24th 
of  last  May  by  a  distinguished  politician.  I  want  you 
to  hear  it,  and  when  you  hear  it  ask  me  who  he  was : — 

"  It  is  the  fault  of  the  Democratic  party,  in  dodging 
truth,  in  dodging  principle,  in  dodging  the  Constitu- 
tion itself,  that  has  brought  the  trouble  upon  the 
country  and  the  party  that  is  experienced  to-day." 

Who  said  that  last  May  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate, 
and  is  thus  reported  in  the  Congressional  Globe  ?  It 
was  "  OLD  JOE  LANE;"  and  I  am  glad  that  he  said  it, 
in  lieu  of  some  Opposition  man;  for  the  latter  would 
have  been  charged  with  abusing  the  Democratic  party ! 

Well  might  Herschel  V.  Johnson,  of  Georgia,  ex- 
claim, in  a  public  speech  at  Macon  but  the  other  day, — 

"  This  whole  Secession  movement  is  without  justifica- 
tion. It  is  not  dignified  by  devotion  to  principle.  It 
is  scarcely  redeemed  from  the  odiousness  of  faction. 
Its  highest  attribute  is  that  of  sheer,  naked,  and  un- 
generous warfare  against  a  great  and  distinguished 


200  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

Democrat.  Let  its  authors  bear  the  responsibility  arid 
reap  the  coming  retribution.  It  will  come  when  the 
popular  mind  shall  be  awakened  to  its  legitimate  ten- 
dencies." 

But  I  come  now  to  the  subject  of  Disunion.  This  is  a 
sore  subject  with  the  Breckinridge  party,  and  they  are 
the  more  sensitive  when  it  is  named,  and  prone  to  de- 
nunciation when  it  is  charged,  because  they  know  and 
feel  that  they  are  justly  liable  to  the  charge.  The 
Breckinridge  men  are  not  all  Disunionists,  but  all  un- 
sophisticated Disunionists  are  Breckinridge  men.  The 
States  that  seceded  from  the  regular  Democratic  Con- 
vention had  expressed  themselves  as  favorable  to  Dis- 
union before  the  National  Convention  met  even  at 
Charleston.  In  the  debates  at  Charleston  and  Balti- 
more they  showed  that  that  was  their  cherished  object. 

Many  of  the  leading  men  who  supported  Breckin- 
ridge, in  different  States,  openly  avow  that  they  were 
in  favor  of  Disunion  in  the  event  of  the  election  oi 
Lincoln,  though  he  might  be  legally  and  constitutionally 
elected  and  by  a  majority  of  the  American  voters. 
Here  are  a  few  of  their  names  : — 

Hon.  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Miss.  Hon.  Mr.  Curry,  of  Ala. 

Hon.  L.  M.  Keitt,  of  S.C.  Hon.  J.  T.  Morgan,  of  Ala. 

Hon.  J.  L.  Orr,  of  S.C.  Hon.  D.  Hubbard,  of  Ala. 

Hon.  R.  B.  Rhett,  of  S.C.  Hon.  Mr.  Gartrell,  of  Ga. 

Hon.  Wm.  L.  Yancey,  of  Ala.  Hon.  Mr.  Crawford,  of  Ga. 

Gov.  J.  J.  Pettus,  of  Miss.  Hon.  Mr.  Bonham,  of  S.C. 

Ex-Gov.  McRea,  of  Miss.  Hon.  Mr.  Singleton,  of  Miss. 

Gov.  Perry,  of  Florida.  Hon.  R.  Davis,  of  Miss. 

Ex-Gov.  McWillie,  of  Miss.  Hon.  R.  A.  Pryor,  of  Va. 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  20J 

Mr.  Dejarnette,  of  Va.  Hon.  H.  S.  Bennett,  of  Miss. 

Hon.  L.  P.  Walker,  of  Ala.  Gov.  Gist,  of  S.C. 

Hon.  Sydenham  Moore,  of  Ala.  Hon.  Mr.  Boyce,  of  S.C. 

Hon.  Mr.  Pugh,  of  Ala.  Hon.  A.  Burt,  of  S.C. 

Now,  hear  what  two  of  these  ardent  Breckinridge 
men  have  said : — 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Hon.  Barnwell  Ehett 
said,  "  The  Eichmond  Convention  is  not  national : 
a  National  Convention  is  one  based  on  principles 
common  to  all  portions  of  the  United  States."  The 
Hon.  A.  Burt  said,  "I  have  not  an  element  of  a 
National  Democrat  in  me.  I  was  raised  a  Nullifier, 
and  should  be  recreant  to  principle  if  I  were  to  apos- 
tatize and  find  myself  in  the  ranks  of  the  National 
Democracy." 

Yancey's  scheme  for  "  precipitating"  the  Cotton 
States  into  a  revolution  you  are  all  familiar  with. 

Major  Polk,  Douglas  Elector  for  the  State  at  large, 
is  speaking  with  Haynes  and  Peyton,  and  at  Fayette- 
ville,  August  31,  stated  that  he  was  prepared  to  prove 
by  a  telegraphic  dispatch  that  Breckinridge  and  Lane 
were  nominated  by  the  Eichmond  Seceding  Conven- 
tion one  hour  before  they  were  at  Baltimore!  This 
plot  explains  why  the  letter  of  the  Eichmond  Disunion 
Convention,  notifying  Breckinridge  of  his  nomination, 
was  never  published,  though  his  letter  of  acceptance  was. 

The  St.  Louis  Republican,  good  Democratic  author- 
ity, positively  asserts, — 


202  BEOWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

"  The  i  upture  at  Charleston  and  Baltimore  is  seen  to 
have  been  a  preconcerted  part  of  the  Disunion  pro- 
g7  amme,  concocted  in  the  secret  lodges  of  the  Disunion 
leagues ;  that  the  plot  was  deliberately  hatched  there 
for  the  disruption  of  the  only  national  party  organiza- 
tion, as  an  essential  preliminary  to  'precipitating  the 
Cotton  States  into  a  revolution/  and  that  by  a  division 
of  the  Democrats  in  the  North,  and  consequent  election 
of  Lincoln,  the  Disunionists  hoped  to  '  fire  the  Southern 
heart'  to  the  work  of  overthrowing  the  Constitution 
and  the  Union." 

A  recent  issue  of  the  Huntsville  Democrat,  a  Breck- 
inridge  organ,  edited  by  a  brother  of  Senator  Clay, 
says, — 

"  If  we  wait  till  our  enemies  get  control  of  the  power 
of  the  Federal  Government,  as  they  have  now  of  the 
Northern  State  Governments,  and  have  possession  of 
the  purse  and  sword,  the  treasury,  army,  navy,  then 
we  white  men  of  the  South  who  wie^.d  '  the  power  of 
slavery'  will  be  'in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.' 
'The  war  of  extermination' — as  Douglas  called  the 
'irrepressible  conflict' — predicted  by  Lincoln,  already 
declared,  will  then  have  been  waged." 

Hon.  Eli  S.  Shorter,  Breckinridge  Elector  in  Ala- 
bama, recently  said,  in  a  speech  in  Pike  county, — which 
speech  is  reported  in  the  /States  Rights  Advocate, — 

"He  took  the  position  boldly,  that  upon  the  election 
of  a  Black  Republican,  upon  a  sectional  platform  and 
by  a  sectional  vote,  he  was  for  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union." 

The  Columbia  South  Carolinian,  a  Breckinridge 
organ  of  recent  date,  says, — 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  203 

"  The  Kepublicans  will  push  forward  in  their  work 
and  elect  their  President,  and,  when  too  late  to  reflect 
or  retreat,  will  find  themselves  face  to  face  with  an  in- 
dignant and  outraged  people,  with  the  flag  of  revolution 
unfurled.11 

The  Columbus  (Ga.)  Times,  a  Breckinridge- Yancey 
paper,  thus  unfurls  the  flag  of  Disunion : — 

"We  have  not  postponed  the  issue  indefinitely.  "We 
are  not  going  to  wait  for  an  overt  act  of  aggression 
before  resisting  a  Black  Republican  President.  We 
repeat,  there  is  no  issue  of  dissolution  in  the  platform 
of  any  party  now  before  the  country.  We  repeat  that 
when  Lincoln  is  declared  elected  we  shall  appeal  to  the 
'people  to  redress  their  grievance.'  We  repeat  all 
that  we  have  ever  said  that  means  resistance  to  Black 
Republican  rule,  from  first  to  last." 

Hon.  John  Driver,  of  Russell  county,  Alabama,  an 
ardent  Breckinridge  man,  and  a  member  of  the  Charles- 
ton and  Baltimore  Conventions,  says,  in  a  published 
card  over  his  signature,  July  23,  1860,  in  defence  of  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  "  To  effect  this  object,  we,  THE 

DISUNION    PARTY,    DISRUPTED    THE    DEMOCRATIC    CON- 
VENTION AT  CHARLESTON,  AND  AT  BALTIMORE  INDUCED 

OTHERS  TO  JOIN  US  BY  OUR  AGREEING  TO  SUPPORT  MEN 
NOT  ENTIRELY  OF  OUR  SENTIMENTS  !" 

James  D.  Thomas,  the  Breckinridge  Elector  for  the 
Knox  district,  said  at  Maynardsville,  on  the  28th  ultimo, 
that  if  the  Judiciary,  Legislative,  and  Executive  Depart- 
ments refuse  protection  to  slave  property,  he  and  his 
party  were  for  secession.  He  said  that  thing,  and  I 


204  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

presume  lie  represents  his  party  in  Tennessee.  Gov- 
ernor Harris  is  committed  to  the  same  odious  and  revo- 
lutionary doctrine.  So  are  all  the  Disunion  leaders  in 
this  State. 

The  Bell-and-Everett  Elector  in  the  State  of  Georgia, 
Colonel  S.  0.  Elam,  has  renounced  the  Union  ticket, 
and  come  out  in  a  card  for  Breckinridge.  Colonel 
Elam  gives  his  reasons  for  the  change;  and  I  beg  you 
to  hear  those  reasons. 

He  says  that  Breckinridge  and  Lane  stand  even  a 
slimmer  chance  than  Bell  and  Everett.  Then  why 
does  Colonel  Elam  leave  us  ?  He  says  that  his  "  con- 
trolling reason"  is  that  "THE  BRECKINRIDGE  PARTY 

IS   PLEDGED    TO    DISSOLVE    THE    UNION    IF    LINCOLN    IS 

ELECTED,"  and  that  "  BRECKINRIDGE'S  RUNNING  REN- 
DERS LINCOLN'S  ELECTION  CERTAIN."  He  thinks  that 
"  Douglas  might  be  elected  if  Breckinridge  was  out  of 
the  way,"  but  "Breckinridge  couldn't  beat  Lincoln  if 
Douglas  was  out  of  the  way." 

So  here  is  the  whole  game  of  the  Yanceyites.  Colo- 
nel Elam  has  let  the  Disunion  cat  out  of  the  bag. 
The  Breckinridge  party  is  pledged  to  dissolve  the  Union 
in  a  certain  contingency, — the  election  of  Lincoln. 

To  MAZE  THAT  CONTINGENCY  CERTAIN,  THEY  ARE  RUN- 
NING BRECKINRIDGE. 

Mr.  Bell  owns  eighty-three  slaves  in  his  own  right, 
and  his  wife  owns  just  an  equal  number, — making  in  all 
one  hundred  and  sixty-six, — and  still  he  is  sneeringly 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  205 

pointed  to  as  unsound  on  the  Slavery  question!  Mr. 
Douglas  owns  no  slaves,  and  never  did  in  his  own 
right,  and  is  a  Northern  man;  and  he  has  an  Electoral 
ticket  in  almost  all  of  the  Southern  States.  Mr.  Breck- 
inridge  and  family  live  in  Lexington,  and  board  at  the 
Phoenix  Hotel,  and  he  votes  in  that  city,  regarding  it 
as  his  home.  For  several  years  past  he  has  returned  no 
property  for  taxation,  either  real  or  personal,  as  ap- 
pears from  the  tax-book, — and  for  the  best  reason  in  the 
world  :  he  has  none.  He  has  a  free  colored  woman  as 
a  nurse,  and  this  is  all  the  connection  he  has  with 
slavery ;  and  yet  he  is  the  pro-Slavery  candidate  for  the 
Presidency,  and  is  supported  by  the  slave-code,  slave- 
trade,  and  Disunion  party,  as  the  only  man  prepared 
to  do  justice  to  the  South  upon  the  question  of  the 
everlasting  nigger ! 

Now,  gentlemen  and  members  of  the  club,  I  am 
about  through  with  the  remarks  I  intended  to  submit 
to  you  on  this  occasion.  Candor  requires  me,  as  the 
contest  is  rapidly  drawing  to  a  close,  to  admit  that  the 
chances  are  that  Mr.  Lincoln  will  be  elected.  If  so, 
this  entire  Breckinridge  party  in  the  South  will  go  in 
for  a  Southern  Confederacy.  If  I  am  living, — and  I 
hope  I  may  be, — I  shall  stand  by  the  Union  as  long  as 
there  are  five  States  that  adhere  to  it.  I  will  say 
more :  I  will  go  out  of  the  Confederacy  if  the  rebel- 
lious party  sustain  itself.  Nay,  I  will  say  still  more : 
I  will  sustain  Lincoln  if  he  will  go  to  work  to  put  down 

18 


206  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

the  great  Southern  mob  that  leads  off  in  such  a 
rebellion  ! 

These  are  my  sentiments,  and  these  are  my  pur- 
poses; and  I  am  no  Abolitionist,  but  a  Southern  man. 
I  expect  to  stand  by  this  Union,  and  battle  to  sustain 
it,  though  Whiggery  and  Democracy,  Slavery  and  Abo- 
litionism, Southern  rights  and  Northern  wrongs,  are 
all  blown  to  the  devil !  I  will  never  join  in  the  out- 
cry against  the  American  Union  in  order  to  build  up 
a  corrupt  Democratic  party  in  the  South,  and  to  create 
offices  in  a  new  Government  for  an  unprincipled  pack 
of  broken-down  politicians,  who  have  justly  rendered 
themselves  odious  by  stealing  the  public  money.  I 
may  stand  alone  in  the  South ;  but  I  believe  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  will  stand  by  me,  and,  if  need 
be,  perish  with  me  in  the  same  cause. 

I  will  conclude,  fellow-citizens,  by  reading  the  fol- 
lowing document,  which  ought  to  be  published  once  a 
year  in  every  newspaper  in  America,  and  read  out  as 
often  from  every  pulpit  in  the  land,  that  the  real  people 
may  see  who  signed  it,  and  what  they  pledged  them- 
selves to  stand  by  : — 

"The  undersigned,  members  of  the  Thirty-First  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  believing  that  a  renewal  of 
sectional  controversy  upon  the  subject  of  slavery  would 
be  both  dangerous  to  the  Union  and  destructive  of  its 
objects,  and  seeing  no  mode  by  which  such  controversy 
can  be  avoided  except  by  a  strict  adherence  to  the  set- 
tlement thereof  effected  by  the  Compromise  acts  passed 


AMONG   THE    REBELS. 


207 


at  the  last  session  of  Congress,  do  hereby  declare  their 
intention  to  maintain  the  said  settlement  inviolate,  and 
to  resist  all  attempts  to  repeal  or  alter  the  acts  afore- 
said, unless  by  the  general  consent  of  the  friends  of  the 
measure,  and  to  remedy  such  evils,  if  any,  as  time  and 
experience  may  develop. 

"  And  for  the  purpose  of  making  this  resolution  effect- 
ive, they  further  declare  that  they  will  not  support 
for  office  of  President  or  Vice-President,  or  of  Senator 
or  of  Representative  in  Congress,  or  as  member  of  a 
State  Legislature,  any  man,  of  whatever  party,  who  is 
not  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  disturbance  of  the  set- 
tlement aforesaid,  and  to  the  renewal,  in  any  form,  of 
agitation  upon  the  subject  of  slavery. 


"Henry  Clay, 
Howell  Cobb, 
C.  S.  Morehead, 
William  Duer, 
Robert  L.  Rose, 
H.  S.  Foot, 
William  C.  Dawson, 
James  Brooks, 
Thomas  J.  Rusk, 
Alexander  H.  Stephens, 
Jeremiah  Clemens, 
Robert  Toombs, 
James  Cooper, 
M.  P.  Gentry, 
Thomas  G.  Pratt, 
Henry  W.  Billiard, 
William  M.  Gwin, 
F.  E.  McLean, 
Samuel  Eliot, 
A.  G.  Watkins, 
David  Outlaw, 
Alexander  Evans, 


H.  A.  Bullard, 

C.  H.  Williams, 
T.  S.  Haymond, 

J.  Phillips  Phoenix, 
A.  H.  Sheppard, 
A.  M.  Schermerhorn, 
David  Breck, 
John  R.  Thurman, 
James  L.  Johnson, 

D.  A.  Bokee, 

J.  B.  Thompson, 
George  R.  Andrews, 
J.  M.  Anderson, 
W.  P.  Mangum, 
John  B.  Kerr, 
Jeremiah  Morton, 
J.  P.  CaldweU, 
R.  I.  Bowie, 
Edmund  Deberry, 

E.  C.  'Cabell, 
Humphrey  Marshall, 
Allen  F.  Owen." 


208  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

My  Last  Interview  with  John  Bell. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  speech  that  I  was 
the  zealous  advocate  of  the  Bell-and-Everett  ticket  in 
the  late  Presidential  election.  As  the  United  States 
were  then  classed  with  England,  France,  and  Russia 
as  one  of  the  four  leading  Powers  of  the  age,  so  these 
two  men  were  particularly  referred  to,  on  all  occasions, 
and  in  all  these  countries,  as  ranking  among  the  most 
illustrious  and  orthodox  of  American  statesmen.  There 
had  scarcely  been  a  debate  in  the  American  Congress, 
for  thirty  years,  on  any  of  the  great  and  exciting  topics 
of  the  day,  in  reference  to  which  the  country  did  not 
feel  anxious  to  know  where  these  two  illustrious  men 
stood. 

For  Colonel  Bell  I  had  battled  faithfully  for  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  and  adhered  to  his  fortunes  through  evil 
and  good  report.  Nay,  I  called  a  son  after  him,  who  is 
now  in  his  twenty-second  year.  Imagine,  then,  my  pain 
and  mortification  on  being  separated  from  Colonel  Bell, 
who  deserted  the  mild  sway  of  the  Federal  Union  he 
had  so  long  and  so  ably  defended,  leaving  the  noble 
Everett  and  my  humble  self  to  battle  on  beneath  the 
folds  of  the  Star-Spangled  Banner,  as  the  only  sacred 
shield  of  a  common  nationality ! 

After  Colonel  Bell  went  over  to  his  old  enemies  and 
the  enemies  of  his  country,  he  performed  a  pilgrimage 
to  Knoxville,  with  a  view  to  cause  the  Union  scales  to 
fall  from  the  eyes  of  his  old  friends.  He  got  oui  a 


AMONG    THE    REBELS.  209 

poster  announcing  a  speech  in  the  court-house.  He 
sought  an  interview  with  a  dozen  of  us,  and  he  obtained 
that  interview  in  Colonel  Temple's  law-office.  He  there 
made  his  weak  argument,  intended  to  convince  us  all 
of  the  error  of  our  ways.  It  fell  to  my  lot  to  make  the 
Union  reply;  and  I  performed  the  task  with  great  pain, 
but  with  great  plainness  of  speech  and  fixedness  of  pur- 
pose. I  told  him  that  we  would  not  only  refuse  to  turn 
Secessionists,  but  that  we  must  decline  gping  to  hear 
any  man  advocate  the  iniquitous  cause  of  Secession,  or 
who  would  associate  with  the  vile  men  we  found  him  in 
the  company  of,  and  who  were  prompting  him  to  con- 
vert us  from  the  error  of  our  ways.  We  parted  in 
tears,  and  have  never  met  since.  And  if  we  never  meet 
again  to  renew  old  friendships  until  we  meet  upon  a 
Secession  platform,  we  shall  fix  the  period  of  our  meet- 
ing to  a  period 

"  Which  kings  and  prophets  waited  for, 
And  sought,  but  never  found." 


210  BEOWNLOW'S    EXPEKIENCES 


CHAPTER  XV. 

EAST  TENNESSEE POPULATION FACE  OF  THE  COUNTRY — CLIMATE, 

SOIL,  AND  PRODUCTIONS RIVERS  AND  MINERALS KNOXVILLE,  DE- 
SCRIPTION THEREOF — THE  "REGISTER"  NEWSPAPER  AND  ITS  DE- 
GRADED EDITOR RAILROADS  AND  APPROACHES  TO  EAST  TENNESSEE 

DESCRIPTION  OF  CUMBERLAND  GAP VOTING  OUT  OF  THE  UNION 

EAST  TENNESSEE  LOYAL  TO  THE  LAST! 

EAST  TENNESSEE — as  loyal  to  this  Government  as  any 
State  in  the  Union — is  composed  of  thirty  large  counties, 
and  is  really  as  separate  and  distinct  from  Middle  and 
West  Tennessee  as  any  of  the  adjoining  States  are.  It 
is  a  valley  three  hundred  miles  in  length,  and  varying 
in  width  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  miles.  It  is  separated 
from  Kentucky,  on  the  north,  by  the  range  of  moun- 
tains known  as  Cumberland  Mountains,  extending  west- 
ward and  southwestward,  and  lying  between  the  great 
valley  of  East  Tennessee  and  the  Cumberland  Eiver, 
one  of  the  largest  affluents — the  Tennessee  excepted — of 
the  Ohio,  rising  among  the  mountains  in  the  southeast 
portion  of  Kentucky.  The  Cumberland  range  of  moun- 
tains belongs  to  the  Appalachian  chain,  and  extends  the 
whole  length  of  the  great  valley  of  East  Tennessee. 
Over  this  range  of  mountains,  through  its  dense  grovea 
and  interminable  laurel-thickets,  the  persecuted  and  op- 
pressed Union  men  of  East  Tennessee  have  forced  their 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  211 

way,  travelling  after  night  and  lying  up  in  daytime,  with 
a  view  of  joining  the  Federal  army,  until  they  are  now 
(May,  1862)  organizing  the  Sixth  Tennessee  Regiment, 
determined  to  fight  back  to  their  homes  and  families. 

On  the  south,  East  Tennessee  is  separated  from  North 
Carolina  and  Georgia  by  the  Chilhowee  and  Iron  Moun- 
tains, and  by  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  extending  in  a 
continuous  chain  from  Virginia  to  Georgia  and  Ala- 
bama. This  range  of  mountains  forms  a  dividing-line 
between  Eastern  and  Western  Virginia,  and  makes  East 
Tennessee  and  Southwestern  Virginia  one  country,  iden- 
tical in  interest,  as  they  are  one  in  soil,  climate,  and 
productions. 

The  population  of  East  Tennessee  partakes  of  the  same 
parentage  as  that  of  Kentucky,  the  original  settlers 
having  been  mostly  from  North  Carolina  and  Virginia; 
and  they  are  second  to  no  people  for  manly  frank- 
ness of  character,  courage,  and  loyalty  to  the  Federal 
Government.  There  are  fewer  slaves  in  East  Tennessee 
than  in  any  other  portion  of  the  State  of  equal  extent ; 
and,  as  a  general  thing,  the  people  are  very  much  upon 
an  equality  as  to  their  possessions. 

The  face  of  the  country  in  East  Tennessee  is  very 
agreeably  diversified  with  mountain,  hill,  and  plain, 
containing  within  its  limits  much  fertility  of  soil,  great 
beauty  of  scenery,  and  a  delightfully  temperate  climate. 
The  hills  are  wooded  to  their  tops  with  every  variety  of 
timber,  whilst  on  all  the  small  rivers  and  large  creeks 


212  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

there  are  embosomed  delightful  and  fertile  valleys  of 
farming-lands,  in  a  high  state  of  cultivation.  Many  of 
the  uplands  are  very  level,  and  others,  generally  undu- 
lating, are  very  productive.  I  have  resided  there  for 
more  than  thirty  years,  and  have  explored  every  one  of 
the  thirty  counties.  Arid  if  there  lives  a  man,  old  or 
young,  in  East  Tennessee  who  is  more  extensively  ac- 
quainted with  the  inhabitants  than  I  am,  I  have  never 
made  his  acquaintance. 

The  climate  of  East  Tennessee  is  mild.  Considerable 
snow  sometimes  falls  in  the  winter,  which,  however,  is 
generally  short,  and  does  not  allow  of  snow  lying  on  the 
ground  long.  During  the  winter  of  1861-2  there  was 
but  one  light  snow,  and  up  to  the  time  of  my  leaving  (3d 
of  March)  there  had  not  been  a  formation  of  ice  to  the 
thickness  of  half  an  inch  !  The  summers  are  free  from 
the  intense  heat  of  the  Gulf  States,  and,  as  a  conse- 
quence, many  families  come  from  the  South  to  spend 
the  summers  at  the  valuable  mineral  springs,  which  are 
found  in  great  abundance ;  and  many  of  them  are  hand- 
somely improved. 

East  Tennessee  is  not  a  cotton-growing  country,  but 
is  favorable  alone  to  grazing;  and  great  numbers  of  live- 
stock— horses,  mules,  cattle,  hogs,  and  sheep — are  ex- 
ported from  thence  to  the  Atlantic  States.  Indian  corn 
and  wheat  are  the  great  staples.  Besides  these,  rye, 
oats,  buckwheat,  potatoes,  (sweet  and  Irish,)  wool,  flax, 
and  hay,  are  produced  in  great  abundance.  Apples  and 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  213 

peaches,  pears  and  plums,  grow  to  great  perfection. 
Maple-sugar  is  made  of  a  fine  quality,  also  superior 
butter  and  cheese.  It  is,  in  one  word,  the  Switzerland 
of  America;  and  I  do  not  intend  to  be  driven  out  of  it 
by  the  more-than-savage  beasts  who  now  have  it  in 
possession. 

The  Holston  River  courses  through  the  entire  valley 
of  East  Tennessee,  and  is  navigable  for  steamboats  nine 
months  in  the  year.  Its  tributaries  above  Knoxville 
are  Pigeon,  French  Broad,  Chucky,  and  Watauga 
Rivers.  Below  Knoxville,  it  receives  Little  River, 
Clinch,  Hiawassee,  and  Tennessee,  and  at  the  confluence 
of  this  last  stream  loses  its  name,  and  is  called  the 
Tennessee  Kiver  until  its  junction  with  the  Ohio, — a 
distance  of  about  seven  hundred  miles. 

Gold  has  been  found  in  considerable  quantities,  but 
the  most  abundant  metallic  minerals  are  iron,  copper, 
zinc,  and  lead.  Of  the  earthy  minerals,  coal  of  a 
superior  quality  is  abundant  in  all  the  counties  bor- 
dering on  the  Cumberland  Mountains.  There  are  also 
gypsum  of  a  fine  quality,  beautiful  varieties  of  marble, 
nitre,  slate,  and  salt.  The  abundance  of  accessible  iron- 
ore,  bituminous  coal,  and  water-power  is  beginning  to 
attract  the  attention  of  capitalists.  A  railroad  is  in  a 
forwar^  state  of  construction,  extending  from  Knoxville 
to  the  coal  and  iron  banks  at  the  foot  of  the  Cumber- 
land Mountains,  and  intended  to  connect  with  Ken- 
tucky and  Cincinnati.  Thirty  miles  of  this  road  are 


214  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

graded,  and  a  portion  of  the  track  is  laid ;  and,  but  for 
this  war  and  the  blockade,  it  would  have  been  in  use  to 
the  foot  of  the  mountain. 

Knoxville,  a  nourishing  city,  the  capital  of  Knox 
county,  the  great  metropolis  of  East  Tennessee,  was 
the  first  seat  of  the  State  Government,  where  Governor 
Blount  resided.  It  is  beautifully  situated,  upon  a  suc- 
cession of  hills,  on  the  right  bank  of  Holston  Eiver, 
four  miles  below  its  confluence  with  the  French  Broad, 
two  hundred  and  sixty  miles  from  Nashville  by  rail- 
road, and  two  hundred  by  the  old  stage-road.  The 
town  was  laid  out  in  1794.  It  contains  the  State 
Asylum  for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb,  and  is  the  seat  of  the 
University  of  East  Tennessee,  an  institution  chartered 
in  1807.  It  has  a  population  of  some  six  thousand, 
exhibits  an  aspect  of  increasing  prosperity,  and  manu- 
factures of  various  kinds  are  springing  up  in  its  vicinity. 
It  has  seven  churches,  and  quite  a  number  of  stores, 
some  of  them  very  fine.  It  has  three  banks,  and  at 
present  but  one  newspaper,  and  that  a  vile  Secession 
journal,  edited  by  a  scoundrel,  debauchee,  and  coward 
named  Sperry,  selected  by  a  more  unprincipled  set  of 
men  than  he  is  himself,  because  of  his  adaptation  to  the 
dirty  work  he  is  employed  to  do.  He  has  really  been 
choked  down  and  flogged  by  as  many  as  four  or  five 
different  men  of  his  own  party.  I  seldom  bestowed  a 
notice  upon  him  or  his  paper  through  my  columns. 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  215 

On  the  31st  of  August  I  did   publish  the  following 
notice  of  him  : — 

Sperry's  Troubles  Increasing, 
The  troubles  of  this  poor  devil,  who  conducts  the  Re- 

ister,  are  multiplying  on  all  hands,  presenting  a  com- 
bination of  shades  and  colors  that  no  landscape  or  fresco 
painter,  milliner  or  French  costumer,  can  imitate.  The 
fellow  thinks  himself  badly  treated  by  men  of  promi- 
nence from  this  and  other  States,  visiting  here,  and  not 
calling  on  him,  while  they  visit  the  editor  of  the  Whig. 
He  complains  that  it  is  treating  the  Secessionists  badly, 
and  that  it  is  an  effort  to  get  the  Whig  to  supplant  his 
miserable  sheet.  We  wish  to  relieve  his  mind  by  as- 
suring him  that  we  are  not  a  competitor  of  his.  His 
paper  is  in  nobody's  way ;  it  has  but  a  limited  circula- 
tion, and  no  character  for  any  thing  but  lying, — whilst 
it  is  understood  that  its  editor  is  a  man  of  bad  morals, 
bad  associations,  and  the  tool  of  the  worst  class  of 
men  in  Knoxville.  Indeed,  the  Secessionists  speak 
in  terms  of  unqualified  disapprobation  of  his  course, 
and  regret  that  they  have  not  a  decent  paper,  in  which 
the  public  can  place  confidence.  Even  the  army-officers, 
or  a  portion  of  them,  and  the  intelligent  privates,  de- 
nounce it  for  its  tone  and  spirit  in  seeking  to  stir  up 
strife  whilst  they  are  laboring  to  promote  peace. 

Decent  men  coming  to  the  city  avoid,  rather  than 
seek,  the  society  and  counsels  of  such  a  man.    They  here 

realize  what  Shakspeare  meant  when  he  called  ou  "  black 


216  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

spirits  and  white,  blue  spirits  and  gray,  to  mingle,  ye 
that 'mingle  may."  They  at  once  see  that  the  degraded 
tool  who  fathers  the  slang  prepared  for  him  by  men 
too  cowardly  to  write  over  their  own  signatures  is  no 
associate  for  them.  The  fellow  has  even  sunk  below 
contempt,  and  in  a  career  of  six  brief  months  gone 
into^ateful  obscurity.  If  he  will  take  our  advice,  we 
will  bring  him  into  notice.  Let  him  head  a  company  . 
of  town-boys  and  small  negroes, — put  on  a  saffron- 
colored  shirt,  a  yellow  vest,  straw-colored  cap,  a  long- 
tailed  coat  figured  and  variegated  generally  with  red, 
white,  blue,  black,  green,  yellow,  orange,  pink,  cream, 
and  straw,  and  many  others  unknown  to  Audubon's 
Ornithology  or  to  Joseph's  coat  of  many  colors.  Let 
him  draw  on  a  sash,  belted,  laced,  and  covered  with 
buttons  of  brass,  pewter,  and  lead.  Let  his  pants  be  a, 
deep  red,  with  large  iron  knee-buckles,  and  long  boots 
made  of  sheepskin,  tanned  with  the  wool  on,  and  wovoj 
outside.  Let  him  wear  large  wooden  spurs,  and  a 
large  tin  sword.  He  must  add  to  this  an  ornamental 
Turkish  neck-tie,  with  a  large  gilt  tassel  hanging 
down  in  the  centre,  and  some  old  negro's  large  bra^ 
breastpin.  Let  him  wear  a  pair  of  green  spectacles 
to  hide  his  bad  countenance,  and  style  his  compary 
"  Young  America." 

The  Federal  Government  owes  it  to  the  loyal  peor^e 
of   East  Tennessee  to  send  an  army  there   and  libe- 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  217 

rate  that  oppressed  and  down-trodden  population.  If  it 
shall  never  accomplish  any  thing  more,  it  ought  at  least, 
and  at  any  cost  of  money  and  blood,  to  do  that  much. 
I  have  confidence  in  the  Government  doing  this  thing, 
and  at  no  very  distant  day.  When  this  is  done,  I  de- 
sire to  return  to  my  family  and  former  field  of  labor, 
and  again  edit  and  publish  my  paper. 

It  is  the  interest  of  the  Government  to  take  pos- 
session of  that  important  field.  The  Eebel  authori- 
ties have  slaughtered  several  hundred  thousand  hogs 
there,  and  have  a  corresponding  number  of  beef- 
cattle  pickled  up,  and  a  quantity  of  wheat  and  flour  on 
hand.  The  East  Tennessee  and  Georgia  Eailroad  ex- 
tends from  Knoxville  to  Chattanooga  and  Dal  ton,  a  dis- 
tance of  one  hundred  and  thirty  miles,  and  connects  with 
Augusta,  Montgomery,  Memphis,  and  Nashville.  Going 
east  from  Knoxville,  the  railroad  extends  to  Lynchburg, 
and  connects  with  Manassas,  Richmond,  Petersburg,  and 
Norfolk ;  and  from  the  beginning  of  this  infamous  rebel- 
lion this  great  line  of  railroad  gave  new  impetus  to  the 
Bebel  movements,  pouring  a  stream  of  Secession  fire 
into  Virginia  from  the  Cotton  States.  Indeed,  it  has 
been  a  matter  of  surprise  that  our  army  did  not  march 
upon  East  Tennessee  long  ago,  capture  Knoxville,  and 
take  possession  of  that  great  railroad.  It  was  certainly 
owing  to  bad  generalship  in  Kentucky,  as  there  are 
several  gaps  through  which  the  approach  could  be 
made.  The  Pound  Gap  is  one,  about  a  hundred  miles 

19 


218  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

east  of  Knoxville,  "and  about  opposite  to  Bristol,  on 
the  line  between  Virginia  and  Tennessee.  Another 
gap  is  the  one  at  Jim  Town;  about  eighty  miles 
northwest  of  Knoxville,  and  near  where  the  celebrated 
battle  of  Fishing  Creek  was  fought.  After  the  fall  of 
General  Zollicoffer,  and  the  disgraceful  run  made  by 
the  Rebel  troops,  one  regiment  of  Federal  troops  could 
have  taken  and  held  Knoxville.  And  so  certain  were 
the  Secession  leaders  that  it  would  be  done,  that  many 
of  them  packed  up  their  effects  and  fled  into  Georgia. 

Cumberland  Gap — a  very  remarkable  formation — is 
only  sixty-five  miles  northeast  of  Knoxville,  and  only 
about  forty  miles  from  this  great  railroad.  The  moun- 
tain-range trends  to  the  south,  the  road  through  the 
gap  running  nearly  east-and-west.  On  the  left  of  the 
road,  looking  from  the  Tennessee  side,  is  a  very  high 
mountain, — I  should  say,  more  than  two  thousand  feet 
above  the  plain, — terminating  very  abruptly  at  the  gap, 
which  is  simply  a  depression,  say  about  one  thousand 
feet  lower  than  the  extreme  high  point.  On  the  right 
of  the  gap  the  mountain  rises  about  two  hundred  feet, 
and  trends  southeast,  nearly  four  or  five  miles. 

When  I  left  home,  the  3d  of  March,  there  were  seven 
thousand  troops  there,  under  the  command  of  Colonel 
Eaines;  and  they,  as  I  am  informed,  have  been  re- 
inforced, and  are  under  the  command  of  General  E. 
Kirby  Smith,  late  from  the  Potomac.  But  the  Bebels 
stationed  there  all  the  fall  and  winter  were  undisciplined 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  219 

troops,  and  poorly  armed  with  such  squirrel-guns  and 
shot-guns  as  were  taken  from  the  Union  men.  Their 
cannon  are  small,  not  equalling,  by  any  means,  those 
used  by  the  Federal  army.  The  position  could  be  made 
very  strong,  but  it  is  by  no  means  impregnable,  with 
men  forced  into  the  Rebel  service  from  the  Union  ranks 
and  unwilling  to  fight  against  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 
The  men  living  round  about  there,  and  for  many 
miles  up  and  down  the  valley,  are  on  the  side  of 
the  Union,  and  would  flock  to  the  standard  of  the 
Federal  army  as  soon  aslhey  would  appear  in  force. 

The  Federal  army  will  cross  there  this  spring  or  sum- 
mer, and  I  shall  not  be  at  all  surprised  if  the  Rebels 
evacuate  the  place  and  fall  back  upon  Knoxville. 
In  that  event,  a  stand  and  fight  will  be  made  at 
Knoxville. 

When  East  Tennessee  came  to  vote  herself  out  of  the 
Union,  she  showed  her  loyalty  and  did  herself  honor. 
The  election  was  first  held  in  February,  under  the  pro- 
clamation of  the  Governor,  and  all  voters  were  to  write 
on  their  tickets  Convention  or  No  Convention,  and  if  the 
Convention  carried,  the  delegates  chosen  at  the  same 
time  would  assemble.  For  No  Convention  there  were 
70,000  votes  cast  as  against  50,000,  and  but  three 
Secessionists  elected  in  the  State. 

The  following  is  the  vote  of  glorious  EAST  TEN- 
NESSEE : — 


220  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Convention.  No  Convention. 

Anderson 137      *  1077 

Bledsoe 190  630 

Blount 450  1552 

Bradley , 242  1443 

Campbell 71  870 

Carter 65  1055 

Claiborne 35  1030 

Cocke 192  1332 

Granger 158  1675 

Greene...., 357  2648 

Hamilton 445  1445 

Hancock 100  746 

Hawkins 422  1338 

Jefferson ^  250  1999 

Johnson 

Knox 394  3167 

Marion 108  751 

McMinn 439  1457 

Meigs 338  323 

Monroe  (in  part) 685  1014 

Morgan 

Polk 117  1112 

Rhea 79  573 

Roane 67  1595 

Scott 29  385 

Sequatchie 50  200 

Sevier 69  1243 

Sullivan 1180  734 

Washington 891  1353 

7550  34,000 

Failing  to  call  an  election  of  delegates  to  Nashville 
by  the  people,  and  failing  to  get  a  Convention  sanc- 
tioned, the  Governor  called  an  extra  session  of  the 
Legislature;  and  that  body,  in  violation  of  the  expressed 
will  of  the  people,  declared  an  ordinance  of  separation 
on  the  6th  of  May,  submitting  the  questions  of  separa- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  221 

tion  from  the  Federal  Government  and  of  representa- 
tion in  the  Richmond  Congress  to  be  voted  on  by  the 
people  on  the  8th  day  of  June.  By  rushing  Eebel 
bayonets  into  East  Tennessee  from  the  Cotton  States, 
and  by  intimidating  thousands  and  running  rough-shod 
over  others,  the  State  was  forced  out  of  the  Union,  when 
a  majority  of  her  people  were  utterly  averse  to  any 
such  separation.  Frauds  were  perpetrated  at  the 
ballot-box,  timid  men  were  kept  from  the  polls,  and 
thousands  were  allowed  to  vote  who  had  no  right  to  do 
so  under  the  laws  and  Constitution  of  the  State. 

The  vote  of  East  Tennessee,  on  going  out,  was  as 
follows : — 

The  Vote  on  the  8th  of  June. 

(Official.) 

EAST   TENNESSEE. 

Sep.  Rep.  No  Sep.  No  Rep. 

Anderson 97  97  1278  1278 

Bledsoe 197  186  500  455 

Blount 418  414  1766  1768 

Bradley 507  505  1382  1380 

Campbell 59  60  1000  1000 

Carter 86  86  1343  1343 

Claiborne 250  246  1243  1247 

Cocke 518  517  1185  1185 

Granger 586  582  1492  1489 

Greene 744  738  2691  2702 

Hamilton 854  837  1260  1271 

Hancock 279  278  630  630 

Hawkins 908  886  1460  1463 

Jefferson 603  597  1987  1990 

Johnson Ill  111  787  786 

19* 


222                        BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

Sep.  Rep.  No  Sep.  No  Rep. 

Knox 1226  1214  3196  3201 

Marion 414  413               600  601 

Meigs 481  478              267  268 

McMinn 904  892  1144  1152 

Monroe 1096  1089               774  775 

Morgan 50  50               630  632 

Polk 738  731              317  319 

Rhea 360  336               202  217 

Roane 454  436  1568  1580 

Scott 19  19               521  521 

Sequatchie 153  151               100  100 

Sevier 60  60  1528  1528 

Sullivan 1586  1576               627  637 

Washington 1022  1016  1445  1444 


For  separation  and  representation  at  Bichmond,  East 
Tennessee  gave  14,700  votes ;  and  half  of  that  number 
were  Bebel  troops,  having  no  authority  under  the  Con- 
stitution to  vote  at  any  election.  For  no  separation 
and  no  representation, — the  straight-out  Union  vote, — 
East  Tennessee  gave  33,000,  or  18,300  of  a  majority, 
with  at  least  5000  quiet  citizens  deterred  from  coming 
out  by  threats  of  violence,  and  by  the  presence  of 
drunken  troops  at  the  polls  to  insult  them. 

To  aid  in  forcing  the  State  out,  the  votes  of  pretended 
Tennesseeans  were  taken  at  the  different  military  camps 
in  and  out  of  the  State.  Indeed,  Governor  Harris,  in 
his  proclamation  on  the  24th  of  June,  records  the  fol- 
lowing votes  as  official,  and  counts  them  on  the  side 
of  Secession : — 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  223 

TOTE    IN    CAMPS. 

Camp  Davis 508 

Camp  De  Soto 15 

Camp  Duncan Ill 

Camp  Jackson 622 

Fort  Harris 159 

Fort  Pickens 737 

Fort  Wright .". 3500 

Harper's  Ferry 575 

Hermitage  Camp 16 

Vote  in  camps 6241 


By  such  fraud  and  villainy  as  this,  the  great  State  of 
Tennessee  was  carried  out  of  the  Union.  The  loyal 
people  of  East  Tennessee,  to  their  great  honor,  had  no 
lot  or  part  in  the  work.  The  Union  men  of  the  State 
are  now  in  the  majority,  and  will  have  the  State  back 
or  die  in  the  last  ditch ! 


224  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTEE  XVI. 

I 

Candidate  for  Governor, 

ON  Saturday,  the  23d  of  March,  1861;  I  issued  thou- 
sands of  copies  of  a  circular  declaring  myself  a  can- 
didate for  the  office  of  Governor  of  Tennessee.  I  give 
this  document  to  the  world,  because  it  vindicates  my 
consistency  as  a  Union  man,  and  because  its  doctrines 
will  do  to  stand  by. 

I  afterwards  withdrew  from  the  contest  in  favor  of 
William  H.  Polk,  a  Middle-Tennesseean,  who  I  supposed 
would  have  more  strength  in  West  Tennessee  and  be 
more  likely  to  defeat  Secession  : — 

To  the  People  of  Tennessee, 

FELLOW-CITIZENS: — As  there  seems  to  be  a  tardi- 
ness on  the  part  of  aspiring  men  in  the  State  to  de- 
clare themselves  candidates  for  the  office  of  Governor 
at  the  ensuing  August  election,  and  as  the  people  seem 
a  little  slow  in  moving  in  that  direction,  I  take  this 
method  of  informing  you  that  I  am  a  candidate  for  the 
office.  I  come  before  you  upon  my  own  responsibility, 
without  solicitations  from,  or  consultations  with,  the 
POLITICIANS  of  the  State.  To  them  I  do  not  look  for 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  225 

"aid  and  comfort,"  as  they  are  aware  that  they  can 
never  control  me,  if  in  office,  or  use  me  to  promote  the 
objects  of  selfish  cliques  or  factions.  I  look  to  the 
unbought  and  unterrified  PEOPLE  of  the  State  to  elect 
me,  and  as  I  purpose,  if  elected,  to  serve  them  and 
their  interests  only,  I  desire  to  be  elected  by  their  suf- 
frages and  influence.  I  have  confidence  in  the  real 
people  of  the  State,  and  will  bow  to  their  decision  as 
expressed  through  the  ballot-box,  without  one  word  of' 
complaint  though  that  decision  may  be  against  me.  I 
should  despise  myself  if  I  could  resort  to  any  of  the 
tricks  of  the  demagogue  to  secure  the  votes  of  the 
honest  yeomanry  of  the  country, — such  as  arraying  the 
poor  against  the  rich,  boasting  of  my  humble  origin, 
claiming  my  right  to  be  elected  upon  sectional  grounds 
or  upon  local  issues,  advocating  a  reduction  of  the 
salaries  of  public  officers,  and  otherwise  appealing  to 
the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  people.  But  I  may 
be  allowed  to  say  that  I  have  no  wealth  to  make  me 
prominent  among  the  "upper  tens."  I  have  no  long 
train  of  influential  relatives  to  urge  my  claims.  Losing 
my  parents  when  a  small  boy,  and  being  left  without 
means,  I  went  to  the  trade  of  the  house-carpenter,  and, 
after  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  "profession,"  I 
worked  for  wages  long  enough  to  enable  me  to  acquire 
an  "  old  field-school  English  education,"  adding  to  my 
store  of  knowledge  in  after-years  as  best  I  could. 
"Whilst  I  do  not  think  I  ought  to  be  supported  because 


226 


of  these  things,  I  do  not  think  that  any  class  of  my 
fellow-countrymen  ought  to  vote  against  me  on  this 
account.  I  ask  for  the  votes  of  the  people  of  Tennes- 
see for  the  high  and  responsible  office  of  Governor, 
only  on  account  of  the  political  principles  I  claim  to 
represent.  These  I  will,  in  brief,  lay  before  the  public, 
concealing  nothing  that  ought  to  be  made  known. 

1.  It  may  be  proper  for  me,  as  briefly  as  possible,  to 
point  out  the  circumstances  which  existed  when  this 
Confederacy  and  Constitution  were  formed.  There  exists 
now  no  question,  political  or  otherwise,  that  did  not 
then  exist;  and  hence  what  is  alleged  to  be  the  cause  of 
the  present  attempt  at  the  dissolution  of  this  Govern- 
ment is  a  sheer  fabrication,  founded  upon  political  chi- 
canery, despotism,  folly,  and  personal  ambition.  When 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  formed,  and 
was  sought  to  be  ratified  by  the  various  States  which 
then  composed  the  colonies,  afterwards  called  the  United 
States  of  America,  there  existed  precisely  the  same 
elements,  and  many  more  subjects  of  diverse  opinion 
and  controversy  than  now.  These  were,  first,  the  des- 
potism and  tyranny  of  monarchical  power,  that  refused 
to  grant  to  the  colonies  their  just  rights,  for  which  in 
1776  these  united  colonies  waged  successful  war  against 
Great  Britain.  Afterwards,  for  the  purpose  of  mutual 
protection  against  invasion,  it  was  deemed  advisable  to 
form  a  Confederacy, — that  Confederacy  to  represent 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  not,  as  is  con- 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  227 

tended  by  Secessionists,  the  "  Sovereign  States  of  Ame- 
rica." Our  fathers,  declaring  their  independence, 
threw  off  the  oppression  of  the  mother-country,  and 
summed  up  their  grievances  as  "  TAXATION  WITHOUT 
REPKESENTATION."  We  have  again  in  our  midst  a 
bogus  form  of  Government,  forced  upon  the  Cotton 
States  by  an  organized  band  of  revolutionists,  whose 
very  foundation  is  that  of  "taxation  without  represent- 
ation." 

2.  In  consequence  of  diversity  of  climate,  interests, 
and  population,  it  was  necessary  to  have  certain  sec- 
tional lines.  Those  lines  already  existed  to  a  certain 
extent;  and  therefore  it  was  deemed  advisable  to  retain 
them,  to  prevent  confusion.  But  the  Constitution  was 
formed  by  the  people  to  govern  the  people,  and  no  single 
individual  State  was  called  upon,  as  a  separate  "  sove- 
reignty," to  sign  or  ratify  that  Constitution,  but  the 
representatives  of  each  State  were  called  upon  to  ratify 
it  for  the  people  of  that  State.  Therefore  it  was  that 
not  in  one,  nor  two,  but  many  years  of  debate  and  con- 
troversy, as  well  as  of  amendments  and  substitutes,  the 
Constitution  was  adopted  and  ratified  by  all  the  States 
of  the  then  existing  Union.  No  State,  therefore,  be- 
longing to  the  compact,  has  a  right  to  withdraw  with- 
out consulting  with  the  other  members.  Originally, 
the  States  coming  in  were  obliged  to  consult  their  sec- 
tional interests;  they  were  obliged  to  call  in  question 
the  various  political  and  social  differences  then  existing; 


228  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

they  were  obliged  to  question  peculiar  rights,  to  touch 
upon  delicate  points  that  then,  more  than  now,  bore 
upon  the  interests,  welfare,  and  prosperity  of  the  Union. 
And  all  who  are  at  all  acquainted  with  the  history  of 
our  Government  know  that  the  hobby  then  is  the  bone 
of  contention  now  among  politicians ;  that  it  consti- 
tuted not  a  sectional  or  State  policy,  strictly  speaking, 
but  a  NATIONAL  FACT;  that  it  was  considered  and  re- 
considered ;  that  concession  after  concession,  plan  after 
plan,  was  sought  for,  in  order  to  prevent  any  future 
difficulty  upon  this  eternal  question  of  African  slavery. 
I  take  occasion  to  assert  that  the  question  has  not 
changed  its  relation  to  the  General  Government  since 
then,  and  that,  while  the  people  of  the  North,  then 
possessing  slavery,  desired  that  it  should  be  abolished, 
the  South  clearly  and  distinctly  understood  that  it  was  to 
continue  here.  Therefore  it  was  made  a  constitutional 
fact  that  slavery  should  exist  in  every  State  of  the 
Union,  if  the  people  of  each  State  should  so  decide; 
and  if  the  people  of  one  or  more  States  decided  that  it 
was  against  their  interests  to  hold  slaves,  slavery  should 
be  abolished, — where  not  abolished,  it  should  be  pro- 
tected and  sustained  under  the  Constitution.  And  it 
is  known  to  every  political  historian  that  the  patriots 
who  formed  the  Constitution  agreed  in  secret  session, 
deliberating  upon  the  welfare  of  the  nation,  that  it  was 
important  to  prevent  any  future  disquiet  or  discussion 
upon  the  Slavery  question,  and  that  therefore  it  should 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  229 

be  left  as  a  matter  of  purely  sectional  interest,  witli 
which  the  General  Government  has  nothing  to  do  and 
for  which  it  would  not  be  responsible,  save  that  it  would 
protect  the  interests  of  all  the  States  choosing  to  adhere 
to  slavery. 

3.  It  was  the  sworn  duty  of  James  Buchanan  to  sup- 
press this  rebellion  when  it  fir^  appeared,  and  before 
it  grew  up  into  its  present  gigantic  proportions.  In- 
stead of  doing  his  duty,  he  actually  sat  in  converse 
with  the  TRAITORS  engaged  in  the  TREASON,  received 
them  into  his  presence,  held  counsel  with  them,  and 
treated  them  with  deference,  instead  of  issuing  an 
order  for  their  arrest.  He  even  consulted  his  Attorney- 
General  as  to  the  constitutionality  of  what  was  going 
on.  An  American  President  asks  if  it  is  constitutional 
to  suppress  rebellion  or  treason, — if  it  is  constitutional 
to  hang  a  traitor, — when  the  very  spirit  as  well  as  the 
letter  of  the  Constitution  is  death  to  all  treason !  What 
I  advocate  is  this :  that  our  Government  execute  its 
laws.  If  a  million  of  lives  are  sacrificed,  the  other 
twenty-nine  millions  will  have  the  benefits  of  freedom. 
And  to  the  people  of  Tennessee  I  would  say,  in  the 
name  of  your  Constitution,  in  the  name  of  your  country, 
in  the  name,  of  your  forefathers,  in  the  name  of  your 
children,  your  honors,  your  free  institutions,  I  conjure 
you,  give  no  ear  to  that  insidious  voice  of  treason  which 
says  peaceable  secession  will  put  an  end  to  our  troubles. 

In  the  same  breath,  I  would  say  to  the  people  of  the 

20 


230  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

North,  repeal  those  acts  which  are  wrong  and  uncon- 
stitutional. The  nation  requires  it;  your  Government 
requires  it;  children  unborn,  who  are  to  represent  you 
in  the  future,  urge  it;  all  your  future  welfare  and 
glory  among  men  require  it;  and  the  dictates  of  your 
holy  religion  require  it. 

4.  I  stand  where  I  did  in  the  late  Presidential  con- 
test, and  never  can  stand  anywhere  else ;  that  is  to  say, 
upon  the  platform  of  the  "  UNION,  THE  CONSTITUTION, 
AND  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  LAWS."     I  do  not 
believe  that  the  election  of  Lincoln  affords  any  sort 
of  pretext  for  dissolving  this  Union ;  I  deny  the  right 
of  secession ;  I  regard  the  States  that  have  gone  out 
of  the  Union  as  guilty  of  TREASON;  and  I  view  the 
leaders  of  the  Secession  party  as  TRAITORS.     If  elected 
Governor,  I  would  refuse  to  convene  the  Legislature  or 
take  any  step  that  would  advance  the  cause  of  Secession, 
and  treat  them  as  men  guilty  of  breaches  of  good  faith 
and  common  honesty. 

5.  I  endorse  the  Inaugural  Address  of  Lincoln,  and 
I  commend  it  for  its  temperance  and  conservatism  and 
for  its  firm  'nationality  of  sentiment.     From  it  I  infer 
that  we  shall  have  no  war  unless  it  be  forced  upon  the 
country  by  the  Seceding   States.     If  Lincoln  should 
attempt  to  inaugurate  oppressive  and  unconstitutional 
measures,  and  Congress  shall  sanction  or  adopt  these 
measures,  either  in  reference  to  the  Slavery  question  or 
any  other  subject,  we  of  the  South  should  await  the 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  231 

decision  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  if  the  Executive, 
Legislative,  and  Judicial  departments  of  the  Govern- 
ment all  sanction  such  iniquitous  measures  and  unite 
in  attempts  to  carry  them  out,  then,  and  in  that  case, 
I  would  advocate  resistance  "  at  all  hazards  and  to  the 
last  extremity."  But,  until  this  is  apparent,  it  is  the 
duty  of  this  patriotic  State  to  stand  firm,  and  not  en- 
tangle herself  with  the  extremes  of  either  the  North 
or  South,  and  to  act  upon  the  sound  maxim  that  Dis- 
union is  not  a  remedy  for  any  wrongs  whatever. 

6.  The  leaders  in  this  movement  to  dissolve  this 
Union,  the  great  citadel  of  our  liberties,  and  the  depo- 
sitory of  the  hopes  of  the  human  race,  will  go  down  to 
their  graves  without  any  halo  of  glory  surrounding 
their  brows,  while  on  their  heads  will  be  gathered  the 
hissing  curses  of  all  generations,  horrible  as  the  forked- 
tongued  snakes  of  Medusa.  Their  ghosts  will  stand  on 
the  highest  and  blackest  eminence  of  infamy,  the  de- 
testation of  mankind.  Having  met  a  traitor's  death, 
they  will  each  and  all  fill  a  traitor's  grave,  over  which 
there  will  be  no  requiem  but  the  groans  of  the  op- 
pressed and  the  execrations  of  the  good.  Their  monu- 
ments will  be  of  human  bones  upon  foundations  slippery 
with  human  blood.  However  high  may  have  been 
their  elevation  in  office,  their  fall  will  be  like  that  of 
Lucifer.  And  whilst  from  their  bad  eminence  they 
shall  turn  from  beholding  the  glories  of  that  Constitu- 
tion and  Union  against  which  they  rebelled  in  the  year 


232  BEOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

of  grace  1861,  to  survey  the  barren  waste,  the  bound- 
less and  bottomless  pits,  of  Secession,  they  will  exclaim, 
like  Lucifer,  their  "  illustrious  predecessor," — 

"  Farewell,  happy  fields  !  where  joy  forever  dwells ! 
Hail,  horrors  !  hail,  infernal  world  !  and  thou, 
Profoundest  hell !  receive  thy  new  possessor  I" 

7.  I  claim  to  have  had  no  lot  or  part  in  bringing 
upon  the  country  the  terrible  crisis  that  is  now  upon 
us.  The  late  Chief  Magistrate,  James  Buchanan,  was 
inaugurated  into  office  under  auspices  of  general  peace 
and  prosperity, — strong  in  the  confidence  of  a  mighty, 
united,  and  triumphant  Democracy.  Possessed  of  every 
aid  and  inducement  to  an  honest,  a  patriotic,  a  brilliant, 
and  a  vigorous  and  successful  administration  of  the 
Government,  he  has  retired  from  power  amid  general 
execration  and  disgrace,  carrying  into  his  retirement 
the  official  brand  of  public  condemnation  upon  his  fore- 
head, and  leaving  to  history,  as  the  only  trophies  of 
his  administration,  the  national  treasury  depleted,  the 
country  loaded  with  an  incubus  of  debt,  that  great 
national  and  conservative  party,  to  whose  generous  and 
confiding  suffrages  he  owes  all  his  fortunes,  demoralized 
a ud  dismembered,  the  perpetuity  of  the  republic  a 
doubtful  and  an  appalling  problem,  and  his  own  name 
a  by-word  of  infamy  and  derision  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  And  in  this  State  the  men  are  in 
power,  wielding  its  patronage,  who  travelled  all  over 
the  State  defending  this  corrupt  Administration  after 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  233 

the  proof  of  its  infamy  was  before  the  world,  both 
clear  and  unquestionable. 

The  policy  of  the  new  Administration  is  not  yet  fully 
developed.  Taking  the  nomination  of  that  great  and 
good  man,  Mr.  Crittenden,  to  the  Supreme  Court  as  an 
example,  it  has  manifested  thus  far  only  conservative 
tendencies,  and  it  has  afforded  proof  that  it  does  not 
seek  to  abolitionize  the  Judiciary.  It  would  be  more 
reasonable,  more  prudent,  and  infinitely  safer  for  the 
people  of  the  South  patiently  to  await  the  developments 
of  the  policy  of  the  new  Administration,  than  to  fly 
from  the  ills  they  have  to  others  that  they  know  not  of, 
and  which  are  already  creating  so  much  discontent  in 
the  new  Confederacy.  That  I  may  be  fully  understood, 
I  repeat  that  I  am  for  the  Union  as  it  ^came  to  us  from 
our  fathers, — the  most  glorious  legacy  of  modern  times. 
I  believe  it  ought  to  be  preserved.  It  should  be  main- 
tained by  peaceable  means, — and  this  can  be  done ;  but 
if  the  property  belonging  to  the  General  Government 
and  now  in  its  possession,  and  costing  the  common 
people  of  all  the  States  millions  of  dollars,  cannot  be 
held  except  by  force  and  against  the  assaults  of  the 
Eebels  going  out  of  the  Union,  I  say,  boldly,  let  the 
gates  of  the  temple  of  Janus  open ;  let  a  national  blow 
be  given  which  will  resound — like  the  shouts  of 
Michael's  host  hurling  treason  over  the  ramparts  of 
heaven— through  all  the  avenues  of  unrecorded  time. 

8.  I  protest  against  a  surrender  of  the  navigation  of 
20* 


234  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPEKIENCES 

the  Mississippi  Biver,  and  would  not,  if  elected  to  the 
office  of  Governor,  agree  to  relinquish  the  right  Ten- 
nessee has  to  the  free  navigation  of  that  great  "inland 
sea,"  if  even  the  General  Government  should  basely 
surrender  its  rights  and  the  rights  of  the  several 
Western  and  Northwestern  States.  Nor  am  I  will- 
ing to  recognize  the  act  of  Secession  on  the  part  of 
Florida,  Louisiana,  and  Texas  in  any  other  light  than 
that  of  dishonesty  and  treason,  meriting  the  scorn  and 
contempt  of  the  civilized  world.  I  say  this  because 
of  the  vast  amount  of  money  paid  by  our  Government, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  sacrifice  of  human  life,  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  these  three  States.  Louisiana, 
(purchased  of  France,)  $15,000,000;  interest  paid, 
$8,385,353  ;  Florida,  (purchased  of  Spain,)  $5,000,000; 
interest  paid,  $1,430,000;  Texas,  (boundary,)  $10,000,- 
000;  Texas,  (for  indemnity,)  $10,000,000;  Texas,  (for 
creditors,  last  Congress,)  $7,750,000;  Indian  expenses 
of  all  kinds,  $5,000,000 ;  to  purchase  navy,  pay  troops, 
$5,000,000 ;  all  other  expenditures,  $3,000,000 ;  Mexi- 
can War,  $217,175,575  ;  soldiers' pensions  and  bounty- 
lands,  $100,000,000;  Florida  War,  $100,000,000; 
soldiers'  pensions,  $7,000,000;  to  remove  Indians, 
$5,000,000;  paid  by  treaty  for  New  Mexico,  $15,000,- 
000;  paid  to  extinguish  Indian  titles,  $100,000,000; 
paid  to  Georgia,  $3,082,000;  total  cost,  $617,822,928. 
Ought  these  three  rebellious  States  to  be  tolerated 
in  their  mad  schemes  of  plunder  and  treason,  after  cost- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  235 

ing  the  people  of  the  other  States  six  hundred  and 
eighteen  millions  of  dollars  f  I  say,  No ;  and,  as  the 
Executive  of  this  State,  I  could  never  do  an  act  that 
would  in  the  remotest  degree  tolerate  this  wholesale 
robbery. 

9.  The  President  of  the  new  Confederacy  has  confined 
his  Cabinet  appointments  to  the  old  Democratic  party, 
— appointing  none  but  Breckinridge  Disunionists,  al- 
though the  Bell  and  Douglas  men  were  a  majority  in 
some  of  their  States.     The  provisional  Government  is, 
therefore,  a  revival  of  corrupt  Southern  Democracy, 
and  is  a  lawless  mob  banded  together  for  the  purpose 
of  perpetuating  that   exploded,  hateful,  and  God-for- 
saken  organization.     It*  is   not  a  government  of  the 
people,  and  it  will  not  long  be  tolerated  by  the  people. 
The  people,  who  ought  to  be  the  source  of  power,  have 
been  refused  the  privilege  of  passing  upon  any  one  of 
their  ordinances  of  Secession,  and  now  they  are  to  be 
refused  the  privilege  of  passing  upon  their  Constitution. 
I  would  sooner  go  into  the  worst  form  of  European 
monarchy  than  into  this  bogus  Confederacy.     And  if 
elected  Governor  of  this  State,  I  will  oppose,  to  the 
bitter  end,  any  fellowship  with  such  Confederacy  by  the 
State  of  Tennessee. 

10.  I  take   the   ground  steadfastly  to  support  the 
General  Government  in  the  exercise  of  every  constitu- 
tional power,  to  enforce  the  execution  of  the  Federal 
laws,  and  to  sustain  in  all  their  integrity  the  Constitu- 


236  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

tion  and  the  Union.  In  other  words,  I  do  not  propose 
to  sit  quietly  by  and  peacefully  surrender  our  country, 
ourselves,  our  children,  our  peace  and  happiness,  to  the 
wicked  schemes  of  treason.  "We  hear  much  said  about 
"coercing"  a  State,  and  about  the  tramp  of  hostile 
armies  to  conquer  and  subdue  a  State  Government. 
Coercion  of  a  State  is  an  adroit  form  of  expression, 
coined  in  the  school  of  Secession  to  give  dignity  to 
treason.  The  American  Constitution  nowhere  contem- 
plates such  a  thing  as  war  upon  a  State,  either  by  the 
General  Government  or  by  a  foreign  Power.  If  a  foreign 
nation  attack  or  invade  any  State  of  the  Union,  it  is 
not,  in  the  theory  of  the  Constitution  or  of  international 
law,  an  act  of  war  upon  the  State,  but  upon  our  General 
Government.  Nor  does  the  Constitution,  operating  as 
it  does  only  upon  individuals,  recognize  such  a  thing 
as  war  against  the  Government  by  a  State,  or  an  asso- 
ciation of  States.  It  treats  resistance  to  its  authority 
as  rebellion,  and  those  who  join  in  such  resistance  as  a 
MOB  ;  and  when  any  number  of  its  own  citizens  band 
together  for  treasonable  purposes,  and  levy  war  upon 
the  General  Government,  it  holds  them  individually 
responsible,  and  hangs  them  as  traitors  to  this  country. 
The  founders  of  the  Government  avowed  that  it  afforded 
the  needful  physical  means  to  execute  its  powers.  His- 
tory gives  us  memorable  examples  of  the  use  of  those 
means  for  their  purpose. 

I  repeat  that  the  word  "  coercion"  is  one  in  very  com- 


AMONG-  THE  KEBELS.  237 

mon  use  in  these  days,  and  it  is  very  offensive  to  all 
advocates  of  Disunion.  Like  many  other  ea£c/t-words, 
it  serves  a  purpose.  Any  thing  looking  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  the  laws,  or  the  preservation  of  the  public 
property  in  seceded  States,  or  States  about  to  secede, 
is  called  coercion,  and  the  honest  and  confiding  people 
are  warned  against  it  as  a  fearful  despotism !  This 
trick,  like  every  thing  else,  will,  in  some  quarters,  serve 
its  purpose.  I  deny  the  right  of  any  State  or  number 
of  States  to  secede,  and  I  insist  upon  it  that  the  seceded 
States,  one  and  all,  are  constitutionally  as  much  in  the 
Union  as  they  were  six  months  ago.  While  laws  exist 
in  reference  to  them,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Government 
to  enforce  them.  If  this  cannot  or  ought  not  to  be  done, 
why,  let  them  be  repealed.  This  the  public  good  and 
the  national  honor  alike  require.  A  State  cannot  be 
coerced,  but  individuals  in  it  can;  and  ought  to  be,  who 
violate  the  laws  and  plot  treason. 

And  although  I  look  upon  the  withdrawal  of  the 
troops  from  Fort  Sumter  as  an  act  of  humiliation  on 
the  part  of  the  Government,  I  approve  the  act,  under 
all  the  circumstances  which  surround  us,  and  I  con- 
sider that  it  removes  all  danger  of  civil  war.  It  is  a 
master-stroke  of  policy,  and  by  it  the  rabid  Disunion- 
ists  have  been  disarmed,  and  deprived  of  all  their 
thunder, — leaving  them  nothing  to  cavil  at,  nothing 
to  attack,  nothing  over  which  they  can  pretend  to  get 
in  a  passion.  "While  this  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter 


238  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

removes  all  danger  of  immediate  collision,  it  will  dis- 
abuse the  minds  of  deluded  Southerners  as  to  the  al- 
leged aggressive  character  of  the  Administration,  and 
will  do  more  than  all  that  has  been  proposed  towards 
suppressing  Disunion,  and  recalling  the  masses  of  our 
countrymen  in  the  South  to  their  sober  senses,  and  to 
their  rightful  allegiance  to  the  Union  and  the  Consti- 
tution, and  the  Stars  and  Stripes  by  which  they  are 
represented.  Every  man,  woman,  and  child,  in  every 
locality  of  our  once  happy  land,  should  devoutly  labor 
for  the  peaceful  solution  of  our  unfortunate  political 
difficulties.  With  peace,  we  may  anticipate  happiness 
and  plenty;  with  war,  crime,  poverty,  wretchedness, 
weeping,  lamentation,  and  sorrow  all  over  the  land. 

11.  As  •  it  regards  State  policy,  I  am  the  advocate 
of  establishing  a  branch  of  the  penitentiary  in  the 
Western  District,  and  another  in  East  Tennessee.  The 
cost  of  building  to  the  State  would  be  saved  in  twenty- 
five  years  in  the  single  item  of  conveying  the  convicts 
to  prison.  Besides  this,  it  would  open  up  a  cash-mar- 
ket to  the  citizens  in  each  end  of  the  State  for  pro- 
visions to  sustain,  and  raw  material  to  keep,  the  con- 
victs employed  in  manufacturing, — such  as  lumber, 
marble,  iron,  leather,  &c.  This  would  furnish  employ- 
ment, and  cash  wages,  to  quite  a  number  of  mechanics 
in  each  division  of  our  State ;  and,  as  there  are  several 
salaried  offices  in  each,  it  would  distribute  the  patron- 
age of  the  State  in  her  three  natural  divisions. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  239 

12.  The  Governor  has  the  control  of  a  heavy  patron- 
age in  the  railroads  and  banks  of  the  State;  and  this 
is  all  now  in  the  hands  of  Secessionists,  who  must  be 
swept  from  office,  or  the  public  interests  will  suffer, 
and  the  State  treasury  will  bleed  at  every  pore,  as  it 
has  been  doing  in  several  of  the  banks  !  It  would  be 
my  duty,  if  elected,  to  turn  these  men  out;  and  I 
would  take  the  greatest  pleasure  in  removing  them. 
Neither  the  bank  of  the  State,  nor  any  of  its  dozen 
branches,  are  under  the  control  of  farmers,  mechanics, 
and  laboring-men;  but  they  are,  each  and  all,  con- 
trolled by  political  partisan  leaders,  county-court  law- 
yers, and  street-loafers.  If  I  am  elected,  the  ini- 
quitous reign  of  these  pampered  bank-officers  and 
recipients  of  bank-favors  is  at  an  end ! 

The  condition  of  the  Bank  of  Tennessee  and  branches, 
officially  set  forth  at  Nashville  on  the  1st  instant, 
shows  that  they  have  bills  and  notes  in  suit  amount- 
ing to  $822,224  12.  Here  is  a  million  of  the  people's 
money  squandered;  and  this  showing  does  not  include 
what  the  politicians  and  partisans  have,  upon  which, 
from  considerations  of  favoritism,  no  suits  have  been 
instituted !  The  same  showing  sets  forth  that  they 
hold  in  real  estate  $246,863  58.  This  must  prove 
a  ruinous  loss  to  the  people.  They  show  of  notes  dis- 
counted $2,497,829  90.  This  is  in  the  hands  of  one 
party,  as  a  general  thing. 

In  most  of  these  branch  banks,  men  have  been  re- ' 


240  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

fused  discounts,  when  they  have  presented  well-en- 
dorsed paper,  on  account  of  their  politics,  although 
the  State  has  recently  declared  against  the  politics  01 
these  same  bank-officers  by  a  majority  of  SEVENTY 
THOUSAND  VOTES  !  Thus  the  banks  of  the  people  are 
used  against  their  owners  by  a  mere  faction  who  have 
them  in  charge.  The  Secessionists  also  have  the  arms 
of  the  State  in  their  possession,  distributed  by  the 
present  Governor. 

The  Disunionists  of  Tennessee  ought  to,  and  I  suppose 
will,  long  remember  the  ever-memorable  9th  of  Febru- 
ary, 1861.  On  that  day  the  freemen  of  the  State 
were  called  upon  to  vote  for  and  against  a  Convention, 
for  and  against  Disunion.  The  vote  stood  thus,  in 
eighty-one  counties  in  the  State: — 

No  Convention 69,675 

Convention 57,798 

Majority  against  Convention 11,877 

This  was  a  decided  vote  against  the  first  step  of  the 
Disunionists  to  drag  Tennessee  into  a  detestable  Con- 
federacy, and  out  from  under  the  protection  of  the 
Stars  and  Stripes.  But  when  the  people  came  to  elect 
delegates,  the  Disunionists  received  a  majority  in  only 
four  counties,  the  vote  footing  up  thus : — 

Union 88,803 

Disunion , 24,749 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  241 

Thus  the  Union  party  received  a  majority,  after  a 
thorough  canvass,  of  64,054  in  the  State,  with  six 
other  counties  to  hear  from,  which  will  increase  the 
majority  to  70,000.  Never  was  such  a  victory  achieved 
in  any  State!  Ought  a  faction,  therefore,  representing 
twenty-five  thousand  out  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand  votes  polled,  to  hold  the  offices  of  the  State 
and  control  her  patronage,  when  that  faction  is  seeking 
to  destroy  the  Government?  I  say,  most  emphatically, 
No !  And  if  the  people  think  proper  to  elect  me,  I 
will  see  that  they  cease  to  control  the  patronage  of  the 
State. 

13.  I  am  frank  to  confess  that  I  desire  the  position 
on  account  of  its  honor,  and  as  a  means  of  rebuking 
my  numerous  Southern  calumniators,  who  are  unre- 
lenting in  their  abusive  war  upon  me  because  of  my 
Union  sentiments  and  of  my  opposition  to  their  treason. 
I  shall,  of  course,  if  elected,  hope  to  serve  the  interests 
of  the  people  of  the  whole  State,  irrespective  of  parties. 
But,  not  being  rich,  I  would  like  to  fill  the  office  for 
two  years,  for  the  sake  of  the  THREE  THOUSAND  DOL- 
LARS PER  ANNUM.     Candor  requires  these  avowals. 

14.  If  voted  for,  and  elected,  it  must  be  done  with- 
out my  canvassing  the  State,  or  speaking  to  the  people 
otherwise  than  through  a  circular.     Though  my  gene- 
ral health  is  good,  and  constantly  improving,   I  have 
suffered  for  two  years  past  from  bronchitis,  or  a  dis- 
ease of  the  throat,  rendering  it  impossible  for  me  to 

21 


242  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

speak  loud  enough  to  be  heard  ten  steps.  Now  that  I 
am  able  to  speak  in  moderation  for  one  hour,  I  dare 
not  do  this  more  than  once  in  a  week;  and  I  would 
fear  to  do  even  this  many  weeks  in  succession.  The 
people  of  the  State  know  me,  and  they  know  my  poli- 
tics. I  have  edited  a  WHIG  paper  in  East  Tennessee 
for  the  last  twenty-two  years.  I  still  edit  that  paper, 
and  it  circulates  in  every  county  in  the  State,  and 
there  can  really  be  no  necessity  for  my  canvassing. 

The  demand  made  upon  the  standard-bearer  in  this 
State,  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  of  all  parties, 
to  canvass  the  whole  State,  at  an  outlay  of  several 
hundred  dollars,  and  an  amount  of  labor  and  fatigue 
ruinous  to  the  constitution,  has  caused  many  of  our 
best  men  to  decline  the  position  of  candidate  for  Gov- 
ernor, and  to  remain  in  private  life.  The  present  is  a 
suitable  time  to  abandon  the  practice  of  stumping  the 
State ;  and  I  propose  to  lead  the  way  in  this  reform. 
If  any  candidate,  of  any  party,  running  in  opposition 
to  me,  shall  think  proper  to  arraign  me  upon  person- 
alities, and  to  denounce  me  in  my  absence,  and  attri- 
bute my  declining  to  canvass  the  State  to  cowardice,  I 
will  make  one  appointment  to  meet  him  at  some  pro- 
minent point,  and,  from  the  same  stand,  meet  his  as- 
saults with  personalities  and  denunciations,  publish 
my  speech  to  the  world,  distribute  it  over  the  State, 
and  let  the  people  settle  the  dispute  as  to  personal 
courage. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  243 

15.  If  the  real  people,  who  constitute  the  great 
Union  party  in  the  State,  shall  prefer  some  other  can- 
didate to  me,  and  shall  make  that  fact  known  by  a 
distinct  and  legitimate  expression  of  their  will,  un- 
influenced by  leaders  and  wire-workers,  I  will  not  be 
the  man  to  disturb  the  harmony  of  the  Union  organiza- 
tion :  I  will  at  once  fall  into  line,  and  enter  most 
heartily  into  the  support  of  their  choice, — provided, 
always,  that  the  standard-bearer  avows  substantially 
the  doctrines  I  have  herein  enunciated.  A  time-serving 
man,  and  a  trimmer,  cannot  get  my  support,  though  he 
run  as  the  representative  of  the  principles  of  the  great 
Union  party  and  succeed  in  obtaining  the  nomination 
by  a  State  Convention.  The  progressive  exigencies  of 
our  country  imperatively  demand  of  a  man  aspiring 
to  an  office  of  such  honor  and  trust,  that  he  show  his 
hand  in  unmistakable  terms  ! 

In  this  I  do  not  mean  to  dictate  to  the  party  or 
their  candidate  their  political  creed,  or  to  set  up  my 
standard  as  one  of  political  perfection.  I  simply  mean 
to  say  that  a  candidate  falling  short  in  the  political 
articles  of  faith  I  enunciate  cannot  receive  my  vote ; 
though,  if  nominated,  I  will  not  make  war  upon  him, 
or  give  him  any  factious  opposition.  And  this  cir- 
cular, in  lieu  of  the  hastily-sketched  address  I  put  forth 
last  week,  is  the  PLATFORM  upon  which  I  propose  to 
run  this  race ;  and  if  I  have  not  clearly  defined  my 


244  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

position,  it  is  because  I  am  not  capable  of  expressing 
my  opinions. 

16.  From  the  press  of  the  State  I  ask  that  courtesy 
and  consideration  which  it  is  accustomed  to  extend  to 
new  candidates  for  popular  favor, — that  of  copying  this 
circular  entire;  each  paper  reserving  to  itself  the  uni- 
versally conceded  right  to  condemn  each  and  every 
part.  Such  papers  as  do  not  think  proper  to  yield  so 
much  of  their  space  to  my  service  will  do  me  the 
simple  act  of  justice  not  to  give  garbled  extracts  and 
in  that  way  misrepresent  my  sentiments. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  Gr.  BROWNLOW. 

March  23,  1861. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  245 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

EXHORTING  THE  SECESSION  LEADERS  TO  VOLUNTEER — GOVERNOR  HAR- 
RIS CALLS  FOR  THIRTY  THOUSAND  VOLUNTEERS THE  BRAVE  SE- 
CESSIONISTS TRY  TO  ENLIST  UNION  MEN — TAKE  OFFENCE  AT  OUR 

IRONICAL    ARTICLES,    AND    STOP    OUR    PUBLICATION OUR    FAREWELL 

ADDRESS  TO  OUR  PATRONS. 

THE  Secession  leaders  in  East  Tennessee  refusing  to 
turn  out  as  soldiers,  or  to  let  their  sons  turn  out,  I 
called  upon  them  through  my  paper,  and  tauntingly 
and  ironically  called  upon  them  to  volunteer.  These 
articles,  short  and  to  the  point,  exasperated  them,  and 
they  had  my  paper  suppressed  immediately  thereafter. 
I  give  these  articles  now  entire,  believing  they  will 
prove  both  refreshing  and  instructive : — 

To  Anns!  To  Arms!  Ye  Brave!! 
Come,  Tennesseeans !  ye  who  are  the  advocates  of 
Southern  rights,  fbr  separation  and  for  Disunion, — ye 
who  have  lost  your  rights,  and  feel  willing  to  uphold 
the  glorious  flag  of  the  South  in  opposition  to  the  Hes- 
sians arrayed  under  the  despot  Lincoln, — come  to  your 
country's  rescue !  Our  gallant  Governor,  who  led  off 
in  this  State  in  the  praiseworthy  object  of  breaking  up 
the  old  rickety  Government  in  the  hands  of  the  Black 
Eepublicans,  calls  for  thirty  thousand  volunteers,  in 

21* 


246  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

addition  to  the  fifty-five  thousand  already  in  the  field. 
Shall  we  have  them?  If  they  do  not  volunteer,  we 
shall  have  our  State  disgraced  by  a  draft,  and  then  we 
must  go  under  compulsion.  Come,  gentlemen  !  Many 
of  you  have  promised  that  "when  it  becomes  neces- 
sary" you  will  turn  out.  That  time  has  come,  and  the 
necessity  is  upon  us.  Let  us  show  our  faith  by  our 
works.  "We  have  talked  long  and  loud  about  fighting 
the  Union-shriekers  and  the  Vandal  hordes  under  the 
despot  Lincoln.  Now  we  have  an  opening.  Some  of 
us  have  even  said  we  were  willing  for  our  sons  to  turn 
out  and  fight  Union  men.  We  have  a  chance  at  a 
terrible  array  of  Unionists  in  Kentucky :  let  us  volun- 
teer, and  General  Sidney  Johnston  will  either  lead  us 
on  to  victory,  or  something  else !  Come,  ye  braves, 
turn  out,  and  let  the  world  see  that  you  are  in  earnest 
in  making  war  upon  the  enemies  of  the  South  !  Many 
of  you  have  made  big  speeches  in  favor  of  the  war; 
not  a  few  of  you  have  sought  to  sell  the  army  sup- 
plies; and  thousands  of  you  are  willing  to  stoop  to 
fill  the  offices  for  the  salaries  they  pay,  and  you  have 
been  so  patriotic  as  to  try  to  get  your  sons  and  other 
relations  into  offices.  Some  of  you  have  hired  your- 
selves out  as  spies,  under-strappers,  and  tools  in  the 
glorious  cause,  at  two  to  four  dollars  per  day.  Come, 
now,  enter  the  ranks,  as  there  is  more  honor  in  serving 
as  a  private.  Come,  gentlemen,  do  come,  we  insist, 
and  enter  the  army  as  volunteers.  You  will  feel  bad 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  247 

when  drafted,  and  pointed  out  as  one  who  had  to  be 
driven  into  the  service  of  your  country !  Let  these 
Union  traitors  submit  to  the  draft,  but  let  us  who  are 
true  Southern  men  volunteer.  Any  of  us  are  willing  to 
be  judges,  attorneys,  clerks,  Senators,  Congressmen,  and 
camp-followers  for  pay,  when  out  of  danger ;  but  who 
of  us  are  willing  to  shoulder  our  knapsacks  and  mus- 
kets and  meet  the  Hessians  ?  Come,  gentlemen :  the 
eyes  of  the  people  are  upon  you,  and  they  want  to  see 
if  you  will  pitch  in.  This  is  a  good  opening ! 

Knoxville  Whig,  Oct.  12,  1861. 

Who  will  Volunteer? 

We  hope  that  our  Secession  neighbors  will  not  be- 
come vexed  at  us  for  urging  them  to  the  discharge  of  a 
most  serious  obligation.  The  Governor  of  their  choice, 
who  has  led  the  way  in  precipitating  this  State  into 
rebellion,  has  called  for  an  addition  of  thirty  thousand 
volunteers.  The  men  who  ought  to  lead  the  way,  who 
have  been  most  noisy  in  the  defence  of  a  Southern  Con- 
federacy and  of  a  war  for  independence,  sfcand  back, 
refuse  to  move  a  peg,  and  even  allow  those  who  have 
entered  the  army  to  come  from  the  field  of  battle,  where 
their  services  are  actually  needed,  to  raise  companies. 
This  is  a  shame  !  We  have  not  less  than  a  half-dozen 
gentlemen  in  this  town,  besides  some  in  the  county, 
who  are  willing  to  serve  as  members  of  the  Confederate 
Congress;  but  not  one  of  them  proposes  to  raise  a 


248  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

company  or  regiment,  or  even  to  serve  as  a  private  in 
the  grand  army  of  the  South,  struggling  for  independ- 
ence !  These  men,  moreover,  are  in  comfortable  cir- 
cumstances, and  could  leave  their  families  enough  to 
live  on.  Not  so  with  the  poor  laborers  and  mechanics 
they  are  urging  to  turn  out.  Their  wives  and  children 
during  a  hard  winter  would  be  obliged  to  suffer. 

"We  have  several  citizens  who  have  actually  been 
appointed  to  offices  by  the  Confederate  Government — 
say  four  of  them — in  this  town,  civil  offices,  that  pay 
good  salaries.  Now,  if  these  will  lay  aside  their 
offices  and  enter  the  army,  we  shall  in  all  time  to 
come  give  them  credit  for  a  proper  amount  of  patriot- 
ism. Let  them  undergo  the  privations  of  camp-life 
and  the  dangers  and  exposures  of  the  battle-field,  and, 
our  word  for  it,  the  people  of  all  parties  will  say  they 
are  in  earnest.  What  do  you  say,  gentlemen, — you 
who  hold  offices,  and  you  who  are  seeking  offices  ? 
Let  the  strife  and  struggle  for  the  accumulation  of 
fortunes  and  posts  of  honor  subside  until  this  war  is 
brought  to  an  end.  Let  us  show  our  "faith  by  our 
works;"  let  us  moderate  our  desires  to  make  money 
and  to  fill  positions  of  honor  removed  from  all  danger, 
and  contribute  to  the  general  weal  by  the  example,  of 
entering  the  service.  Our  ostentatious  display  of  large 
subscriptions  to  the  cause  will  make  no  lasting  impres- 
sion in  our  favor,  as  long  as  we  refuse  to  submit  to 
personal  exposures  where  armies  meet. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  249 

Come,  gentlemen ;  we  must  insist  upon  your  entering 
the  service,  and  upon  your  doing  it  now.  Hundreds 
are  standing  off  to  see  if  you  will  make  good  your 
promise  to  turn  out  "whenever  it  became  necessary." 
It  is  necessary  now,  and  the  call  is  made  from  head- 
quarters. If  your  section  is  not  more  prompt,  not  a 
single  regiment  will  be  made  up  under^this  last  call, 
and  a  draft  will  be  resorted  to,  which  the  whole  South 
will  regard  as  a  disgrace  to  the  "  Volunteer  State." 

Knoxville  Whig,  Oct.  19,  1861. 

Closing  the  Knoxville  "Whig. 

This  issue  of  the  Whig  must  necessarily  be  the  last 
for  some  time  to  come :  I  am  unable  to  say  how  long. 
The  Confederate  authorities  have  determined  upon  my 
arrest,  and  I  am  to  be  indicted  before  the  Grand  Jury 
of  the  Confederate  Court,  which  commenced  its  session 
in  Nashville  on  Monday  last.  I  would  have  awaited 
the  indictment  and  arrest  before  announcing  the  re- 
markable event  to  the  world,  but,  as  I  only  publish  a 
weekly  paper,  my  hurried  removal  to  Nashville  would 
deprive  me  of  the  privilege  of  saying  to  my  subscribers 
what  is  alike  due  to  myself  and  them.  I  have  the  fact 
of  my  indictment  and  consequent  arrest  having  been 
agreed  upon  for  this  week,  from  distinguished  citizens, 
legislators,  and  lawyers  at  Nashville,  of  both  parties. 
Gentlemen  of  high  positions,  and  members  of  the 
Secession  party,  say  that  the  indictment  will  be  made 


250  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

because  of  "  some  treasonable  articles  in  late  numbers 
of  the  Whig.'1  I  have  reproduced  those  two  "  treason- 
able articles"  on  the  first  page  of  this  issue,  that  the 
unbiased  people  of  the  country  may  "read,  mark,  learn, 
and  inwardly  digest"  the  treason.  They  relate  to  the 
culpable  remissness  of  these  Knoxville  leaders  in  failing 
to  volunteer  in  the  cause  of  the  Confederacy. 

According  to  the  usages  of  the  court,  as  heretofore 
established,  I  presume  I  could  go  free,  by  taking  the 
oath  these  authorities  are  administering  to  other  Union 
men ;  but  my  settled  purpose  is  not  to  do  any  such 
thing.  I  can  doubtless  be  allowed  my  personal  liberty, 
by  entering  into  bonds  to  keep  the  peace  and  to  demean 
myself  toward  the  leaders  of  Secession  in  Knoxville, 
who  have  been  seeking  to  have  me  assassinated  all 
summer  and  fall,  as  they  desire  me  to  do ;  for  this  is 
really  the  import  of  the  thing,  and  one  of  the  leading 
objects  sought  to  be  attained.  Although  I  could  give 
a  bond  for  my  good  behavior,  for  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  signed  by  fifty  as  good  men  as  the  county 
affords,  I  shall  obstinately  refuse  to  do  even  that ;  and 
if  such  a  bond  be  drawn  up  and  signed  by  others,  I  will 
render  it  null  and  void  by  refusing  to  sign  it.  In  de- 
fault of  both,  I  expect  to  go  to  jail,  and  I  am  ready  to 
start  upon  one  moment's  warning.  Not  only  so,  but 
there  I  am  prepared  to  lie  in  solitary  confinement 
until  I  waste  away  because  of  imprisonment  or  die 
from  old  age.  Stimulated  by  a  consciousness  of  inno- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  251 

cent  uprightness,  I  will  submit  to  imprisonment  for 
life,  or  die  at  the  end  of  a  rope,  before  I  will  make  any 
humiliating  concession  to  any  power  on  earth  ! 

I  have  committed  no  offence.  I  have  not  shouldered 
arms  against  the  Confederate  Government,  or  the  State, 
or  encouraged  others  to  do  so.  I  have  discouraged 
rebellion,  publicly  and  privately.  I  have  not  assumed 
a  hostile  attitude  toward  the  civil  or  military  authorities 
of  this  new  Government.  But  I  have  committed  grave, 
and,  I  really  fear,  unpardonable  offences.  I  have  refused 
to  make  war  upon  the  Government  of  the  United  States; 
I  have  refused  to  publish  to  the  world  false  and  exag- 
gerated accounts  of  the  several  engagements  had  be- 
tween the  contending  armies ;  I  have  refused  to  write 
out  and  publish  false  versions  of  the  origin  of  this  war, 
and  of  the  breaking  up  of  the  best  Government  the 
world  ever  knew;  and  all  this  I  will  continue  to  do,  if 
it  cost  me  my  life.  Nay,  when  I  agree  to  do  such 
things,  may  a  righteous  God  palsy  my  right  arm,  and 
may  the  earth  open  and  close  in  upon  me  forever ! 

The  real  object  of  my  arrest  and  contemplated  im- 
prisonment is  to  dry  up,  break  down,  silence,  and  destroy 
the  last  and  only  Union  paper  left  in  the  eleven  seceded 
States,  and  thereby  to  keep  from  the  people  of  East 
Tennessee  the  facts  which  are  daily  transpiring  in  the 
country.  After  the  Hon.  Jeff  Davis  had  stated  in  Rich- 
mond, in  a  conversation  relative  to  my  paper,  that  he 
would  not  live  in  a  Government  that  did  not  tolerate. 


252  BROWNLOW'S   EXPEEIENCES 

freedom  of  the  press,— after  the  judges,  attorneys,  jurors,, 
and  all  others  filling  positions  of  honor  or  trust  under 
the  "  permanent  Constitution,"  which  guarantees  free- 
dom of  the  press, — and  after  the  entire  press  of  the 
South  had  come  down  in  their  thunder  tones  upon  the 
Federal  Government  for  suppressing  the  Louisville 
Courier  and  the  New  York  Day-Book,  and  other 
Secession  journals, — I  did  expect  the  utmost  liberty  to 
be  allowed  to  one  small  sheet,  whose  errors  could  be 
combated  by  the  entire  Southern  press !  It  is  not 
enough  that  my  paper  has  been  denied  a  circulation 
through  the  ordinary  channels  of  conveyance  in  the 
country,  but  it  must  be  discontinued  altogether,  or  its 
editor  must  write  and  select  only  such  articles  as  meet 
the  approval  of  a  pack  of  scoundrels  in  Knoxville,  when 
their  superiors  in  all  the  qualities  that  adorn  human 
nature  are  in  the  penitentiary  of  our  State !  And  this 
is  the  boasted  liberty  of  the  press  in  the  Southern  Con- 
federacy ! 

I  shall  in  no  degree  feel  humbled  by  being  cast  into 
prison,  whenever  it  is  the  will  and  pleasure  of  this 
august  Government  to  put  me  there ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, I  shall  feel  proud  of  my  confinement.  I  shall  go 
to  jail — as  John  Kodgers  went  to  the  stake — for  my 
principles.  I  shall  go,  because  I  have  failed  to  recog- 
nize the  hand  of  God  in  the  work  of  breaking  up  the 
American  Government,  and  the  inauguration  of  the 
most  wicked,  cruel,  unnatural,  and  uncalled-for  war 


if 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  253 

ever  recorded  in  history.  I  go,  because  I  have  refused 
to  laud  to  the  skies  the  acts  of  tyranny,  usurpation, 
and  oppression  inflicted  upon  the  people  of  East  Ten- 
nessee for  their  devotion  to  the  Constitution  and  laws 
of  the  Government  handed  down  to  them  by  their 
fathers,  and  the  liberties  secured  to  them  by  a  war  of 
seven  long  years  of  gloom,  poverty,  and  trial !  I  repeat, 
I  am  proud  of  my  position  and  of  my  principles,  and 
shall  leave  them  to  my  children  as  a  legacy  far  more 
valuable  than  a  princely  fortune,  had  I  the  latter  to 
bestow ! 

With  me  life  has  lost  some  of  its  energy:  having 
passed  six  annual  posts  on  the  western  slope  of  half  a 
century,  something  of  the  fire  of  youth  is  exhausted; 
but  I  stand  forth  with  the  eloquence  and  energy  of  right 
to  sustain  and  stimulate  me  in  the  maintenance  of  my 
principles.  I  am  encouraged  to  firmness  when  I  look 
back  to  the  fate  of  Him  "whose  power  was  righteous- 
ness," while  the  infuriated  mob  cried  out,  "Crucify  him! 
crucify  him !" 

I  owe  to  my  numerous  list  of  subscribers  the  filling 
out  of  their  respective  terms  for  which  they  have  made 
advance  payments,  and,  if  circumstances  ever  place  it 
in  my  power  to  discharge  these  obligations,  I  will  do  it 
most  certainly.  But  if  I  am  denied  the  liberty  of  doing 
so,  they  must  regard  their  small  losses  as  so  many  con- 
tributions to  the  cause  in  which  I  have  fallen.  I  feel 
that  I  can  with  confidence  rely  upon  the  magnanimity 


254  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

and  forbearance  of  my  patrons  under  this  state  of  things. 
They  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  have  held  out  as  long 
as  I  am  allowed  to,  and  that  I  have  yielded  to  a  mili- 
tary despotism  that  I  could  not  avert  the  horrors  of  or 
successfully  oppose. 

I  will  only  say,  in  conclusion, — for  I  am  not  allowed 
the  privilege  to  write, — that  the  people  of  this  country 
have  been  unaccustomed  to  such  wrongs ;  they  can  yet 
scarcely  realize  them.  They  are  astounded  for  the  time- 
being  with  the  quick  succession  of  outrages  that  have 
come  upon  them,  and  they  stand  horror-stricken,  like 
men  expecting  ruin  and  annihilation.  I  may  not  live  to 
see  the  day,  but  thousands  of  my  readers  will,  when  the 
people  of  this  once  prosperous  country  will  see  that  they 
are  marching  by  "double-quick  time"  from  freedom  to 
bondage.  They  will  then  look  these  wanton  outrages 
upon  right  and  liberty  full  in  the  face,  and  my  pre- 
diction is  that  they  will  "stir  the  stones  of  Rome 
to  rise  and  mutiny."  Wrongs  less  wanton  and  out- 
rageous precipitated  the  French  Revolution.  Citizens 
cast  into  dungeons  without  charges  of  crime  against 
them,  and  without  the  formalities  of  a  trial  by  jury; 
private  property  confiscated  at  the  beck  of  those  in 
power ;  the  press  humbled,  muzzled,  and  suppressed,  or 
prostituted  to  serve  the  ends  of  tyranny!  The  crimes 
of  Louis  XVI.  fell  short  of  all  this,  and  yet  he  lost  his 
head !  The  people  of  this  country,  down-trodden  and 
oppressed,  still  have  the  resolution  of  their  illustrious 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  255 

forefathers,  who  asserted  their  rights  at  Lexington  and 
Bunker  Hill ! 

Exchanging,  with  proud  satisfaction,  the  editorial 
chair  and  the  sweet  endearments  of  home  for  a  cell  in 
the  prison  or  the  lot  of  an  exile, 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  &c., 

WILLIAM  G.  BROWNLOW, 
Editor  of  the  Knoxville  Whig. 

Knoxville  Whig,  Oct.  24,  1861. 


256  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

GENERAL   ZOLLICOFFER's    CORRESPONDENCE — HIGHLY   IMPORTANT    RE- 
VELATIONS MADE  BY  THE  REBEL  LEADERS UNION  FEELING  IN  EAST 

TENNESSEE THE  PEOPLE  OF  EAST   TENNESSEE  TO  BE   CRUSHED  OUT. 

A  LARGE  mass  of  correspondence  was  found  in  General 
Zollicoffer's  camp  after  his  army  was  routed  and  his 
head-quarters  were  captured,  portions  of  which  contain 
important  admissions  as  to  the  prevalence  and  extent 
of  the  Union  feeling  in  East  Tennessee.  I  have  found 
this  correspondence  since  I  came  North,  and  I  desire 
to  have  it  preserved  in  a  permanent  form,  and  to  see 
that  it  gets  back  into  East  Tennessee,  that  the  Union 
men  there,  and  their  children  after  them,  may  see  the 
signatures,  and  hold  the  guilty  and  murderous  authors 
in  everlasting  remembrance! 

I  am  sorry  to  find  in  this  correspondence  letters 
from  General  Zollicoffer  breathing  the  spirit  that  his  do, 
and  giving  the  advice  he  did.  It  only  proves  that 
when  the  disease  of  Secession  takes  hold  of  a  man, 
he  is  at  once  given  over  to  hardness  of  heart  and 
reprobacy  of  mind !  From  the  turn-coat  Methodist 
Hopkins,  the  pious  Presbyterian  elder  0.  Wallace, 


AMONG  THE  REBELS.  257 

and  the  Parson  Colonel  Wood,  I  was  prepared  to  hear 
all  that  they  have  said.  These  men  are  the  regular 
descendants  of  the  families  of  Baron  Munchausen, 
Lemuel  Gulliver,  and  Captain  Riley,  and  rank  among 
the  first  families  in  "  Dixie/'  combining  all  the  marvel- 
lous faculties  of  their  ancestry.  The  dark  tide,  turbid 
as  the  waves  of  hell,  that  has  engulfed  and  swept  over 
every  thing  South  for  the  last  twelve  months,  looms 
up  in  this  rich  and  racy  correspondence ;  and  none 
need  wonder  that  it  should  have  carried  with  it  a 
venal  press  and  a  debauched  and  time-serving  pulpit. 
When  preachers,  elders,  and  class-leaders  write  out 
such  letters  and  dispatches  and  engage  in  such  work, 
what  could  we  expect  but  that  the  watchmen  on  the 
walls  of  Zion  would  turn  active  traitors,  and  dwindle 
down  to  "  dumb  dogs  who  would  not  bark"  ? 

This  correspondence  suggests  several  important  facts ; 
and  I  must  remind  the  reader  of  them,  to  secure  an  at- 
tentive perusal  of  the  letters. 

First.  That  an  overwhelming  number  of  the  East 
Tennesseeans  were  devoted  to  the  Union,  and  intended 
to  die  by  it.  This  is  true;  and  I  am  proud  to  have  it 
in  my  power  to  say  that  this  Union  sentiment  has 
never  given  way  in  the  least  degree. 

Second.  That  the  Kebel  leaders  were  resolved  to 
subjugate  them  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and  have, 
ever  since  the  date  of  these  letters,  been  executing 

their  hellish  plans,  thus  deliberately  agreed  upon  ! 

22* 


258  BROWNLOW'S  EXPEEIENCES 

Third.  That  all  the  Union  men  were  to  be  dis- 
armed, and  their  property  used  to  carry  on  the  war. 
This  thieving  resolve  they  have  carried  out  in  good 
faith,  even  doing  more  and  going  further  than  they 
bargained  for ! 

Fourth.  That  "  no  prisoners  were  to  be  released, 
even  on  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Jeff  Davis 
Government."  The  time  for  such  conciliatory  measures 
with  them  had  passed,  even  at  the  date  of  these  infa- 
mous letters.  Bead  the  correspondence  carefully,  and 
see  how  these  incarnate  devils  unmask  themselves,  and 
disclose  the  deep  and  damning  depravity  of  their  sin- 
clad  hearts  and  souls. 

Eebel  Correspondence, 

"  ATHENS,  TENN.,  Nov.  10, 1861. 

"  COLONEL  WOOD,  Knoxville,  Tenn. : — 

"  I  have  reliable  information  that  some  1500  Lincoln 
men  are  under  arms  in  Hamilton  county,  ostensibly 
for  Jamestown.  Their  destination  is  more  probably 
Lowden  Bridge. 

"  C.  WALLACE,  President." 

"  LOWDEN,  EAST  TENN.,  Nov.  10,  1861. 

"  COLONEL  WOOD  : — 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Captain  Canood's  company  arrived 
here  at  six  P.M.  yesterday,  and  are  pitching  their  tents 
to-day  at  the  northern  end  of  the  bridge,  while  Cap- 
tain Eldridge  is  encamped  at  the  southern  end.  Extra 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  259 

pickets  and  sentinels  were  posted  during  the  night,  but 
no  demonstration  was  made  from  any  quarter,  and  the 
night  was  passed  in  quiet. 

"  The  Union  feeling  of  this  county  is  exceedingly 
bitter,  and  all  they  want,  in  my  opinion,  to  induce  a 
general  uprising,  is  encouragement  from  the  Lincoln 
armies.  They  have  a  great  many  arms,  and  are  act- 
ually manufacturing  Union  flags  to  receive  the  refugee 
Tennesseeans  when  they  return.  They  are  getting  bold 
enough.  If  I  had  one  or  two  more  companies,  a  great 
many  arms  could  be  procured  here  in  this  neighbor- 
hood,— I  mean,  if  we  had  the  force  to  spare  from  the 
bridge. 

"Very  respectfully, 

S.  SLASSON,  Major  commanding" 

"  JACKSBORO,  Nov.  9, 1861. 

"  COLONEL  "W.  B.  WOOD,  Knoxville,  Tenn. : — 

"  SIR: — Your  dispatch  is  just  received,  informing  me 
of  the  burning  of  Hiawassee  bridge,  and  other  bridges 
on  the  railroad,  and  asking  me  for  reinforcements. 
Colonel  Powell's  regiment  being  five  miles  from  here,  on 
the  Knoxville  road,  I  have  sent  him  an  order  to  march 
at  daylight  for  Knoxville,  making  a  forced  march.  He 
is  instructed  to  communicate  with  you  immediately  on 
his  arrival.  You  will  be  in  command,  and  may  make 
such  disposition  of  the  forces  as  you  may  think  advi- 
sable. Brigadier-General  W.  TL  Carroll's  three  regi- 


260  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

ments  have  been  ordered  to  report  to  me,  but  have  not 
reported,  and  I  have  no  knowledge  where  they  are.  I 
have  expected  them  by  now  at  Knoxville.  Have  you 
any  knowledge  where  they  are  ? 

"  Very  respectfully, 

"  F.  K.  ZOLLICOFFER, 

"  Brigadier- General" 

[Telegram.] 

"  CHARLESTON,  Nov.  10,  1861. 

"  COLONEL  WOOD  : — 

"  A  reliable  messenger  informs  me  that  (75)  seventy- 
five  Union  soldiers  were  to-day  near  Harrison.  They 
had  knapsacks,  and  were  going  to  Captain  Clift's.  It 
is  believed  that  he  has  fifteen  hundred  (1500)  men 
organized. 

"  J.  D.  STOUT." 

[Telegram.] 

"  To  WM.  H.  SNEED,  J.  T.  CROZIER,  MAJOR  C.  WAL- 
LACE, GENERAL  ZOLLICOFFER,  COLONEL  WOOD  : — 
"About   nine   hundred    men,   part   of  them    from 
Bradley  county,  leave  Clift's,  in  this  county,  to-day, 
in  squads,  either  to  organize  for  operations  against  this 
place   and   Lowden   Bridge,  or  to  meet  Union  forces 
from  Kentucky.     They  have   some  wagons,  and   are 
partly    armed.      The   regiment   is   formidable.      Send 
word  to  General  Zollicoffer,  that  he  may  catch  them. 

"JOHN  L.  HOPKINS." 

[Telegram.] 

"CHARLESTON,  TENN.,  Nov.  12,  1861. 
"  To  GlLLESPIE  AND  KEY  : — 

"Jeff  Mathis  is  within  twelve  miles  of  this  place; 
has  one  hundred  men.  We  can  disperse  them.  Shall 
we  do  it?  I  expect  help  from  you  immediately. 

"  SMITH  AND  McKANEY." 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  261 

[Telegram.] 

"CHATTANOOGA,  Nov.  12,  1801. 

"  To  GENERAL  GILLESPIE  : — 

"  They  have  formed  a  camp  at  Bower's,  near  Smith's 
Cross-Eoads.  They  may  return  to  this  place  or  to 
Lowden.  They  calculate  to  organize  one  thousand 
men.  Reliable. 

"  J.  L.  HOPKINS." 

"BRIGADE  HEAD-QUARTERS,  JACKSBORO,  Nov.  12,  1861. 

"  COLONEL  W.  B.  WOOD,  Knoxville : — 

"SiR: — The  express-man  reached  me  this  evening 
at  nine  o'clock,  with  two  letters  from  you,  both  dated 
November  11.  You  say  the  tory  force  at  Papaw 
Hollow  is  augmenting  from  the  adjoining  counties. 
Please  state  what  county  Papaw  Hollow  is  in.  You 
say  you  enclose  me  a  dispatch  from  John  L.  Hopkins, 
Chattanooga ;  but  no  dispatch  is  enclosed. 

"I  have  two  cavalry  companies  under  Captain 
Rowan,  near  Oliver's,  on  the  road  from  Knoxville  to 
Montgomery,  and  two  near  Huntsville,  on  the  road 
from  Chetwood's  to  Montgomery.  But  your  omission 
to  send  the  dispatch  of  Hopkins,  and  only  incidental 
allusion  to  cutting  off  somebody  near  Kingstown, 
leaves  me  at  a  loss  what  orders  to  send  there.  Please 
give  me  all  the  information  you  have  which  will  enable 
me  to  intercept  any  body  of  tories  attempting  to  pass 
toward  Montgomery,  Jamestown,  Huntsville,  or  Post 
Oak  Springs.  I  rejoice  that  you  have  caught  six  of 
the  bridge-burners.  I  am  yet  unadvised  what  precise 
bridges  are  actually  destroyed,  or  whether  my  in- 


262  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

tended  telegrams  are  really  transmitted  over  the  wires. 
...  I  will  to-morrow  send  dispatches  to  the  forces 
near  Jamestown,  the  cavalry  near  Huntsville,  that 
near  Oliver's,  and  start  out  the  cavalry  here  to  com- 
mence simultaneously  disarming  the  Union  inhabit- 
ants. You  will  please  simultaneously  send  orders  to 
all  detachments  under  your  command  to  inaugurate 
the  same  movement  at  the  same  time  in  their  various 
localities.  Their  leaders  should  be  seized  and  held  as 
prisoners.  The  leniency  shown  them  has  been  un- 
availing. They  have  acted  with  duplicity,  and  should 
no  longer  be  trusted. 

"F.  K.  ZOLLICOFFER,  Brigadier- General." 

"  KNOXVILLE,  Oct.  28,  1861. 

"  GENERAL  : — The  news  of  your  falling  back  to  Cum- 
berland Ford  has  had  the  effect  of  developing  a  feeling 
that  had  only  been  kept  under  by  the  presence  of 
troops.  It  was  plainly  visible  that  the  Union  men 
were  so  glad  that  they  could  hardly  repress  an  open 
expression  of  their  joy.  This  afternoon  it  assumed  an 
open  character,  and  some  eight  or  ten  of  the  bullies  or 
leaders  made  an  attack  on  some  of  my  men  near  the 
Lamar  House,  and  seriously  wounded  several.  Gen- 
tlemen who  witnessed  the  whole  affair  say  that  my 
men  gave  no  offence,  and  were  not  at  all  to  blame. 
The  affair  became  directly  general,  and  couriers  were 
sent  to  apprize  me  at  my  camp  of  its  existence.  I  im- 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  263 

mediately  marched  Captain  White's  cavalry  and  one 
hundred  of  my  men  into  the  town  to  arrest  the  assail- 
ants ;  but  they  made  their  escape. 

"The  /Southerners  here  are  considerably  alarmed, 
believing  that  there  is  a  preconcerted  plan  for  a 
united  action  among  the  Union  men  if  by  any  means 
the  enemy  should  get  into  Tennessee.  Lieutenant 
Swan  told  me  to-night  that  he  heard  one  say  this  even- 
ing, as  Captain  White's  cavalry  rode  through  town, 
that  '  they  could  do  so  now  ;  but  in  less  than  ten  days 
the  Union  forces  would  be  here  and  run  them  off.'  I 
cannot  well  tell  you  the  many  evidences  of  disaffection 
which  are  manifested  every  day,  and  the  increased 
boldness  that  it  is  assuming. 

"  Very  respectfully, 

"  W.  B.  WOOD,  Col.  cornlg  Post. 

"  Brigadier-General  ZOLLICOFFEB." 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  KNOXVILLE,  TENX.,  Nov.  1,  1861. 

"  HON.  J.  P.  BENJAMIN,  Secretary  of  War : — 

"  Sm  : — I  have  to-day  written  to  General  Cooper  in 
reference  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  East  Tennessee,  and 
the  necessity  of  reinforcements  being  sent  immedi- 
ately. But,  as  there  is  a  misapprehension  in  reference 
to  the  feeling  of  the  late  Union  party,  I  have  requested 
Mr.  Walker,  of  Richmond,  now  on  a  visit  here,  to  call 
on  you  and  give  you  fuller  information  than  I  can 
write. 


264  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

"  In  addition  to  what  I  have  written  to  General 
Cooper,  I  will  say  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the 
fact  that  large  parties,  numbering  from  twenty  to  a 
hundred,  are  every  day  passing  through  the  narrow 
and  unfrequented  gaps  of  the  mountain  into  Kentucky 
to  join  the  army.  My  courier,  just  in  from  James- 
town, informs  me  that  a  few  nights  since  one  hundred 
and  seventy  men  passed  from  Eoane  county  into  Ken- 
tucky. 

"  I  do  not  believe  that  the  Unionists  are  in  ike  least 
reconciled  to  the  Government,  but,  on  the  contrary,  are 
as  hostile  to  it  as  the  people  of  Ohio,  and  will  be  ready 
to  take  up  arms  as  soon  as  they  believe  the  Lincoln 
forces  are  near  enough  to  sustain  them.  .  .  . 
"Yours,  respectfully, 

"  W.  B.  WOOD,  Col.  com'g  Post." 

"KNOXVILLE,  TENN.,  Nov.  10,  1861. 

"  GENERAL  ZOLLICOFFER  : — 

"  SIR  : — Information  has  been  received  that  Mr. 
Hodges,  member  of  the  Legislature,  has  been  making 
a  treasonable  speech  over  in  Lewis  county.  He  is  also 
suspected  of  having  a  knowledge,  if  not  an  instigator, 
of  the  bridge-burning. 

"  He  was  here  yesterday  morning,  and  we  could 
have  arrested  him ;  but  he  made  his  escape,  and  will 
probably  try  to  get  through  the  lines. 

"Five  of  the   incendiaries   that  burned   the   Lick 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  265 

Oreek  bridge  have  been  arrested.  The  bridge  at 
Union  has  been  destroyed,  one  at  Charleston,  two  on 
the  Western  and  Atlantic  Road,  below  Chattanooga. 
I  had  a  company  at  Lick  Creek ;  but  the  incendiaries 
deceived  them,  and,  getting  possession  of  their  guns,  took 
them  prisoners  and  accomplished  their  ends.  .  .  . 

"  Respectfully, 

"W.  B.  WOOD." 

"  KNOXYILLE,  TENN.,  Nov.  11,  1861. 

"GENERAL  S.  COOPER,,  Adjutant- General,  $c.: — 

"  SIR  : — My  fears  expressed  to  you  by  letter  and  dis- 
patches of  the  4th  and  5th  inst.  have  been  realized  by 
the  destruction  of  no  less  than  five  railroad-bridges. 
The  indications  were  apparent  to  me ;  but  I  was  power- 
less to  prevent  it. 

"  The  whole  country  now  is  in  a  state  of  rebellion. 
A  thousand  men  are  within  six  miles  of  Strawberry 
Plains  Bridge,  and  an  attack  is  contemplated  to-morrow. 
I  have  sent  Colonel  Powell  there  with  two  hundred 
infantry,  one  company  of  cavalry,  and  about  one  hundred 
citizens  armed  with  shot-guns  and  country  rifles. 

"Five  hundred  Unionists  left  Hamilton  county  to- 
day,— we  suppose,  to  attack  Lowden  Bridge.  I  have 
Major  Campbell  there,  with  two  hundred  infantry  and 
one  company  of  cavalry. 

"  I  have  about  the  same  force  at  this  point,  and  a 
cavalry  company  at  Washington  bridge.  An  attack 

23 


266  BKOWKLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

was  made  there  on  yesterday.  Our  men  succeeded  in 
beating  them  off;  but  they  are  gathering  in  large  force, 
and  may  secure  it  in  a  day  or  two. 

"  They  are  not  yet  fully  organized,  and  have  no  sub- 
sistence to  enable  them  to  hold  out  long.  A  few  regi- 
ments and  vigorous  means  would  have  a  powerful  effect 
in  putting  it  down.  A  mild  or  conciliating  policy  will 
do  no  good :  they  must  be  punished,  and  some  of  the 
leaders  punished  to  the  extent  of  the  laws. 

"  I  have  arrested  six  of  the  men  who  were  engaged 
in  firing  the  Lick  Creek  bridge,  and  I  desire  to  have 
instructions  from  you  as  to  the  proper  disposition  of 
them.  The  slow  course  of  civil  law  in  punishing  such 
incendiaries,  it  seems  to  me,  will  not  have  the  salutary 
effect  which  is  desired. 

"  I  learned  from  two  gentlemen  just  arrived  that 
another  camp  is  being  formed  about  two  miles  from 
here,  in  Sevier  county,  and  already  three  hundred  are 
in  camp.  They  are  being  reinforced  from  Blount, 
Roane,  Johnson,  Greene,  Carter,  and  other  counties. 

"  I  feel  it  to  be  my  duty  to  place  this  city  under 
martial  law,  as  there  were  a  large  majority  of  the  people 
sympathizing  with  the  enemy  and  communicating  with 
them  by  the  unfrequented  mountain-paths,  and  to  pre- 
vent surprises  and  the  destruction  of  public  property. 
jT  need  not  say  that  great  alarm  is  felt  by  the  few 
Southern  men  here.  They  are  finding  places  of  safety 
for  their  families,  and  would  gladly  enlist  if  we  had 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  267 

arms  for  them.  I  have  had  all  the  arms  in  the  city 
seized,  and  authorized  Major  Campbell  to  impress  all 
he  can  find  in  the  hands  of  Union  men. 

"  Very  truly, 

B.  WOOD." 


Letter  from  "Wood  to  Benjamin. 

"  KNOXVILLE,  November  20,  1861. 

"To  HON.  J.  P.  BENJAMIN,  Secretary  of  War:  — 

"Sm:  —  The  rebellion  in  East  Tennessee  has  been  put 
down  in  some  of  the  counties,  and  will  be  effectually 
suppressed  in  less  than  two  weeks  in  all  the  counties. 
Their  camps  in  Sevier  and  Hamilton  counties  have  been 
broken  up,  and  a  large  number  of  them  made  prisoners. 
Some  are  confined  in  this  place,  and  others  sent  to 
Nashville.  In  a  former  communication,  I  inquired  of 
the  Department  what  I  should  do.  It  is  a  mere  farce 
to  arrest  them  and  turn  them  over  to  the  courts.  In- 
stead of  having  the  effect'  to  intimidate  them,  it  really 
gives  encouragement  and  emboldens  them  in  their 
traitorous  conduct.  Patterson,  the  son-in-law  of  An- 
drew Johnson,  State  Senator  Pickens,  and  several  other 
members  of  the  Legislature,  besides  others  of  influence 
and  distinction  in  their  counties,  —  these  men  have  en- 
couraged the  rebellion,  but  have  so  managed  as  not  to 
be  found  in  arms.  Nevertheless,  all  their  actions  and*" 
words  have  been  unfriendly  to  the  Government  of  the 
Confederate  States.  Their  wealth  and  influence  have 


268  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

been  exerted  in  favor  of  the  Lincoln  Government,  and 
they  are  the  parties  most  to  blame. 

"  They  really  deserve  the  gallows,  and,  if  consistent 
with  the  laws,  ought  speedily  to  receive  their  deserts. 
But  there  is  such  a  gentle  spirit  of  conciliation  in  the 
South,  and  especially  here,  that  I  have  no  idea  that  one 
of  them  will  receive  such  a  sentence  at  the  hands  of  any 
jury.  I  have  been  here  at  this  station  for  three  months, 
half  the  time  in  command  of  this  post;  and  I  had  a 
good  opportunity  of  learning  the  feeling  pervading  this 
country.  It  is  hostile  to  the  Confederate  Government. 
They  will  take  tlt,e  oath  of  allegiance  luith  no  intention 
to  observe  it.  They  are  the  slaves  of  Johnson  and 
Maynard,  and  never  intend  to  be  otherwise.  When 
arrested,  they  suddenly  become  very  submissive,  and 
declare  they  are  for  peace,  and  not  supporters  of  the 
Lincoln  Government,  but  yet  claim  to  be  Union  men. 
At  one  time,  while  our  forces  were  at  Knoxville,  they 
gave  it  out  that  a  great  change  had  taken  place  in  East 
Tennessee,  and  that  the  people  were  becoming  loyal. 

"At  the  withdrawal  of  the  army  from  here  to  the 
Gap,  and  the  first  intimation  of  the  approach  of  the 
Lincoln  army,  they  were  in  arms,  and  scarcely  a  man 
but  was  ready  to  join  it  and  make  war  upon  us.  The 
prisoners  we  have  all  tell  us  that  they  had  every  as- 
surance that  the  enemy  was  already  in  the  State  and 
would  join  them  in  a  few  days.  I  have  requested  at 
least  that  the  prisoners  I  have  taken  be  held,  if  not  as 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  269 

traitors,  as  prisoners  of  war.  To  release  them  is  ruinous. 
To  convict  them  before  a  court  is  next  to  impossibility. 
But  if  they  are  kept  in  prison  for  six  months,  it  will 
have  a  good  effect. 

"  The  bridge-burners  and  spies  ought  to  be  tried  at 

once. 

"  Very  respectfully,  yours, 

"W.  B.  WOOD." 
Benjamin's  Eeply, 

"WAR  DEPARTMENT,  RICHMOND,  November  25, 1861. 

"  COLONEL  W.  B.  WOOD  :— 

"  SIR  : — Your  report  of  the  20th  instant  is  received, 
and  I  now  proceed  to  give  you  the  desired  instruction 
in  relation  to  the  prisoners  of  war  taken  by  you  among 
the  traitors  of  East  Tennessee. 

"  First.  All  such  as  can  be  identified  in  having  been 
engaged  in  bridge-burning  are  to  be  tried  summarily  by 
drum-head  court-martial,  and,  if  found  guilty,  exe- 
cuted on  the  spot  by  hanging.  It  would  be  well  to  leave 
their  bodies  hanging  in  the  vicinity  of  the  burned 
bridges. 

"  Second.  All  such  as  have  not  been  so  engaged  are 
to  be  treated  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  sent  with  an  armed 
guard  to  Tuscaloosa,  Alabama,  there  to  be  kept  im- 
prisoned at  the  depot  selected  by  the  Government  for 
prisoners  of  war. 

"Whenever  you  can  discover  that  arms  are  concen- 

23* 


270  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES. 

trated  by  these  traitors,  you  will  send  out  detachments, 
search  for  and  seize  the  arms.  In  no  case  is  one  of  the 
men  known  to  have  been  up  in  arms  against  the  Govern- 
ment to  be  released  on  any  pledge  or  oath  of  allegiance. 
The  time  for  such  measures  is  past.  They  are  all  to  be 
held  as  prisoners  of  war,  and  held  in  jail  to  the  end  of 
the  war.  Such  as  come  in  voluntarily,  take  the  oath 
of  allegiance,  and  surrender  their  arms,  are  alone  to  be 
treated  with  leniency. 

"  Your  vigilant  execution  of  these  orders  is  earnestly 
urged  by  the  Government. 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"  J.  P.  BENJAMIN, 

"  Secretary  of  War. 
"  COLONEL  W.  B.  WOOD,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

"P.S. — Judge  Patterson,  (Andy  Johnson's  son-in- 
law,  Rem.  Corresp.,)  Colonel  Pickens,  and  other  ring- 
leaders of  the  same  class,  must  be  sent  at  once  to  Tusca- 
loosa  to  jail  as  prisoners  of  war." 


INCIDENTS 

CONNECTED  WITH  THE  GREAT  SOUTHERN 
REBELLION  IN  TENNESSEE; 


TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED 


f  f  nw-f  if*, 

AND  THE  SUBSEQUENT  RELEASE  AND  JOURNEY  OE  THE  AUTHOR. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

MUCH  of  what  now  follows  was  written  down  by  the 
author  in  small  blank-books,  with  a  pencil,  in  the 
Knoxville  jail,  and  in  a  private  room,  while  the  outer 
doors  were  guarded  with  Kebel  bayonets.  That  por- 
tion given  in  the  form  of  a  journal  will  be  transmitted 
to  posterity  just  as  it  was  written  down  at  the  time,  and 
without  any  attempt  at  polish.  When  most  of  these 
sketches  reach  the  eyes  of  my  prison-companions  in 
the  Knoxville  jail,  they  will  recall  to  them  our  mutual 
sufferings,  and  they  will  readily  attest  the  truthfulness 
of  my  narrative.  They  will  at  once  bear  testimony  as 
to  the  fidelity  of  my  descriptions  and  the  accuracy 

271 


272  BIIOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

with  which  I  have  stated  facts,  although  they  will  re- 
gret that  I  have  not  gone  more  into  detail. 

Whilst  I  desire  to  let  the  world  see  what  the  real 
spirit  of  Secession  is  in  the  South,  and  to  expose  the 
guilty  leaders  to  the  scorn  and  contempt  of  all  coming 
generations,  I  wish  to  enlist  the  interests  and  sym- 
pathies of  all  who  may  find  leisure  to  peruse  these 
pages.  I  have  known,  during  my  darkest  hour  of  trial, 
that  I  had  the  sympathies  of  all  good  citizens  in  the 
loyal  States,  and  did  not  doubt  that  thousands  of  de- 
vout prayers  were  offered  up  for  my  preservation  and 
ultimate  release,  and  for  the  safety  and  release  of  the 
innocent  Union  men  confined  with  me  and  in  other 
jails.  If  in  these  pages  I  can  vindicate  my  consist- 
ency and  satisfy  the  public  that  their  sympathies  have 
been  merited,  I  will  have  accomplished  all  that  is  de- 
sired or  aimed  at  by  the  publication  of  them. 

When  the  storm  arose  in  the  South, — say  a  little  over 
twelve  mouths  ago, — and  the  current  set  in  seemingly 
favorable  to  Secession,  vast  numbers  rushed  into  their 
ranks,  actuated  by  the  worst  motives  that  ever  governed 
the  actions  of  as  many  bad  men, — the  daring  and  im- 
provident, the  indolent,  the  thoughtless,  the  bankrupts 
of  the  country,  and  the  thousands  indebted  to  North- 
ern merchants,  debauched  members  of  the  churches, 
apostate  preachers,  and  the  intemperate, — all  the  loose 
elements  of  society  in  the  towns  and  villages, — those 
who  were  reckless  of  consequences,  and  to  whom  no 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  273 

change  could  be  productive  of  injury, — men  who  really 
had  every  thing  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose;  even  by 
so  violent  and  destructive  a  revolution. 

And  whilst  many  of  the  substantial  men  of  the 
country  entered  the  army, — for  the  most  part  as  of- 
ficers, contractors,  wagon-masters,  and  furnishers  of 
supplies  in  various  forms, — a  much  greater  number 
entered  the  service  who  were  pusillanimous  and  worth- 
less, lazy  and  sensual,  having  no  visible  means  of  sup- 
port. Many  of  these  were  known  to  me  in  East  Ten- 
nessee and  other  portions  of  the  South;  and  I  can 
safely  say  that  when  they  entered  the  service,  and 
were  fitted  out  with  suits  of  coarse  jeans  and  supplied 
with  army-rations,  they  were  better  dressed  and  fed 
than  they  ever  had  been  before.  Not  a  few  of  these 
entered  the  Eebel  service  with  a  view  to  get  rid  of  their 
wives  and  children,  who  were  looking  to  them  for  a 
support,  and  whose  bread  and  meat  were  guaranteed 
by  those  who  urged  them  to  volunteer,  but  who,  after 
they  were  gone,  left  their  families  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. 

It  was  a  common  thing  to  hear  men  of  this  class, 
dressed  in  uniform,  and  under  the  influence  of  mean 
whiskey,  swearing  upon  the  streets  that  they  intended 
to  have  their  rights,  or  kill  the  last  Lincolnite  north  of 
Mason  &  Dixon's  line !  Ask  one  of  them  what  rights 
he  had  lost  and  was  so  vehemently  contending  for,  and 
the  reply  would  be,  the  right  to  carry  his  negroes  into 


274  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

the  Territories.  At  the  same  time,  the  man  never 
owned  a  negro  in  his  life,  and  never  was  related,  by  con- 
sanguinity or  affinity,  to  any  one  who  did  own  a  negro ! 
Nay,  I  have  heard  captains  of  Rebel  companies  bluster 
in  this  way,  who  could  not  get  credit  in  a  Secession 
store  for  a  pair  of  shoes  or  a  pound  of  coffee. 

And,  as  if  resolved  to  keep  up  a  show  of  consistency 
and  carry  out  the  same  spirit,  society  was  disjointed, 
and  was  everywhere  thrown  into  the  loosest  state  in 
which  it  could  exist,  upon  the  inauguration  of  Seces- 
sion. There  were  no  regular  magistrates,  no  laws,  no 
judges,  no  tribunals  to  protect  the  weak  and  innocent 
or  to  punish  the  guilty.  Take  for  example  the  case  of  a 
Union  man  in  Knox  county,  who  was  tied  upon  a  log,  his 
back  stripped  bare,  and  cut  all  to  pieces  with  hickories, 
as  one  of  my  engravings  will  show.  When  he  was 
brought  into  the  court-house,  and  his  back  exhibited, 
he  was  told  that  these  were  revolutionary  times,  and 
that  he  had  no  remedy.  Every  man  had  to  assert  his 
own  rights  and  avenge  his  own  wrongs,  or,  as  most 
were  compelled  to  do,  submit  to  insult  and  injury. 
Squads  of  six  and  ten  Rebel  troops,  upon  their  own 
responsibilities,  scoured  the  country,  arrested  whom 
they  chose,  and  treated  them  as  their  malice  and 
beastly  habits  of  life  suggested.  Take  the  case  of 
Captain  Bill  JBrown,  of  Bradley  county,  who,  at  the 
head  of  a  company  of  cavalry,  arrested  Union  men, 
and  forced  from  them  sums  of  money  to  pay  him 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  ZiO 

for  their  release,  until  he  boasted  of  having  two  thou- 
sand dollars.  This  charge  was  brought  before  the 
military  authorities  at  Knoxville,  and  again  dismissed 
without  a  reproof  to  this  robber. 

As  a  general  thing,  these  outlaws,  who  were  ope- 
rating all  over  East  Tennessee,  were  neither  restrained 
by  a  sense  of  shame,  the  dictates  of  humanity,  nor  the 
fear  of  God.  Hence,  many  innocent  persons  fell  victims 
to  their  malevolence,  and  had  their  property  either  shame- 
fully abused  or  recklessly  destroyed.  Tennessee  is  a 
greatly-damaged  State, — thousands  of  the  men  having 
escaped  into  Kentucky,  leaving  their  homes  and  crops, 
all  of  which  have  since  been  destroyed  by  the  Rebel 
troops.  This  is  especially  so  in  the  several  counties 
along  the  south  side  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains. 
Kentucky  and  Missouri  will  both  feel  the  effects  of 
this  devastating  war, — a  war  which  the  Cotton  States 
artfully  contrived  to  transfer  to  the  border  States,  but 
which,  thanks  to  the  energy  of  the  heads  of  the  Fede- 
ral army,  is  falling  back  to  where  it  ought  to  have 
begun,  and  where  it  should  end. 

Virginia  is  a  ruined  State.  Poor  old  Virginia !  her 
children  yet  unborn  will  feel  the  effects  of  this  wicked 
revolution.  Indeed,  I  pause  in  the  midst  of  my  labors 
to  moralize  upon  the  condition  of  my  native  State, 
which  but  yesterday 

"might  have  stood  against  the  world; 
Now  none  so  poor  to  do  her  reverence." 


276  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Mother  of  heroes  and  statesmen,  the  birthplace  of 
Presidents,  the  burial-place  of  the  greatest  American, — 
it  seems  but  yesterday  that  she  had  the  strongest  claims 
upon  the  great  Republic,  on  account  of  her  dignity, 
her  retrospect  of  noble  labors,  her  frontier  position, — 
holding  as  it  were  the  balance  of  power, — and  the  noble 
future  which  hung  upon  the  expected  assurance  of  her 
loyalty.  But,  urged  and  incited  by  her  maddened 
and  vile  leaders,  such  as  Wise,  Mason,  Pryor,  and  a 
host  of  desperate  men  whose  names  can  never  be  men- 
tioned but  with  disgust,  she  was  hissed  on  until  she 
was  out  of  her  senses,  and  she  fell  from  her  high  estate 
into  the  disgraceful  ranks  of  rebellion.  New  domi- 
nions must  arise  upon  her  ruins,  a  new  race  of  men 
must  people  her  soil,  and  the  "  Old  Dominion"  be  but 
a  historic  cognomen  in  all  time  to  come.  What  a  fate, 
and  what  a  retribution !  Let  loyal  Maryland  legislate 
for  a  part,  let  New  Virginia  control  the  West,  let  East 
Tennessee  teach  the  extreme  southwestern  counties 
loyalty,  and  to  little  Delaware  let  Accomac  and  North- 
ampton be  annexed  ! 

This  may  seem  to  be  a  terrible  fate ;  but  such  would 
be  a  merited  degree  of  punishment  for  the  leading  dema- 
gogues of  Virginia,  and  for  the  masses  who  followed 
_them  to  perdition.  The  way  of  transgressors  may  be 
liard,  but  the  retribution  is  none  the  less  logical  and 
their  punishment  none  the  less  just. 

All  these  evils  were  brought  upon  the  country  by 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  277 

the  Southern  Senators  and  Eepresentatives  going  out 
of  Congress  and  urging  their  States  to  secede.  Pryor 
at  one  time  telegraphed,  "We  can  get  the  Crittenden 
Compromise."  But  Douglas  overheard  Mason  say  in 
the  Senate,  "  No  matter  what  compromise  the  North 
offers,  the  South  must  find  a  way  to  defeat  it."  The 
Congress  of  the  United  States  would  have  given  any 
compromise  wanted.  In  the  Senate,  had  the  Southern 
States  remained,  they  would  have  had  a  majority  of 
six,  and  in  the  House,  a  majority  of  THIRTY-SIX,  over 
the  entire  Republican  party. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1861  a  stream  of  Secession  fire 
began  to  pour  through  East  Tennessee,  along  the  great 
Tennessee  &  Virginia  Railroad,  and  troops  were  rushed 
along  the  road  in  greater  numbers  than  the  rolling 
stock  upon  the  road  would  afford  facilities  for  trans- 
porting. These  regiments,  coming  from  the  Cotton 
States,  and  many  of  them  vagabonds  and  wharf-rats 
from  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  and  Texas,  were  brimfull  of 
prejudice  against  me  and  my  paper.  These  prejudices 
were  increased  and  their  malice  inflamed  by  the  false- 
hoods related  to  them  by  unprincipled  citizens  and 
cowards  whom  I  had  denounced  for  years,  and  by 
certain  railroad-employe's  on  their  way  to  Knoxville. 
Hence,  after  they  would  arrive  in  Knoxville  and  pay 
a  visit  to  the  whiskey-shops,  they  would  forthwith 
swarm  around  my  printing-office  and  dwelling-house, 
howl  like  wolves,  swear  oaths  that  would  blister  the 

24 


278  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

lips  of  a  sailor,  blackguard  my  family,  and  threaten  to 
demolish  my  house,  and  even  to  hang  me.  This  was 
kept  up  the  entire  summer  and  fall,  and  increased  in 
violence  until  my  paper  was  suppressed  and  my  office 
seized  upon  and  occupied  by  the  Eebel  military  authori- 
ties,— which  was  in  November  last. 

While  General  Zollicoffer  remained  at  Knoxville  in 
command,  I  was  protected,  and  so  were  all  other  Union 
men  and  their  families.  Previous  to  his  coming,  how- 
ever, certain  officers  of  Vaughn's  regiment  of  East 
Tennessee  Volunteers  commenced  personal  violence 
on  Union  men,  and  occasioned  a  row  in  the  street, 
shooting  down  a  Mr.  Ball,  and  firing  several  shots  at 
Charles  S.  Douglas, — the  man  who  ran  up  the  Union 
flag  on  Gay  Street  and  protected  it  with  a  double- 
barrel  shot-gun, — one  shot  slightly  wounding  him  in 
the  neck.  The  next  day  certain  of  these  officers  came 
into  town  from  camps,  in  a  close  carriage,  entered  the 
hotel  at  the  ladies'  entrance,  and  watched  for  Douglas 
from  a  window  until  he  appeared  at  his  window  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  street,  when  they  took  deliberate  aim 
at  him  and  shot  him  through  the  breast  with  a  large 
musket-ball.  Thus  was  Douglas  murdered  in  a  most 
cowardly  and  brutal  manner,  while  the  State  was  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Union;  and  the  circuit  court 
judge  and  the  State's  Attorney  were  both  in  town,  but, 
being  Secessionists,  no  bill  was  sent  against  the  mur- 
derers of  Douglas,  nor  was  one  word  said  in  court  on 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  279 

the  subject ;  but  his  widow  and  one  small  child  were 
left  to  take  care  of  themselves.  Nor  is  tnis  all.  The 
Episcopal  minister,  Mr.  Hames,  was  proscribed  for 
daring  to  attend  the  funeral  and  officiate,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  widow.  This  is  the  spirit  which  has 
characterized  this  rebellion  throughout  the  South  ! 

After  the  departure  of  General  Zollicoffer  to  Cum- 
berland Gap,  I  soon  became  convinced  that  I  was  in 
danger  of  personal  violence  from  the  soldiers  left  there 
under  the  command  of  one  Rev.  Colonel  W.  B.  Wood, 
of  Alabama,  a  hypocrite,  who  preached  in  the  Method- 
ist Church  on  Sunday  and  the  next  day  encouraged 
his  men  to  do  acts  of  violence.  Certain  of  these  troops 
were  in  the  habit  of  coming  daily  to  my  residence,  or 
passing  by  it,  flourishing  their  large  knives,  pointing 
their  guns  at  the  windows,  and  threatening  to  take  my 
life.  They  were  incited  to  act  in  this  manner  by  my 
bitter  personal  enemies  and  by  the  cowardly  miscreant 
who  conducted  the  rebel  organ  in  Knoxville,  and  who 
desired  me  and  my  paper  out  of  their  way.  They  were 
also  encouraged  by  this  unmitigated  villain,  Parson 
Colonel  Wood.  My  enemies  seeking  to  make  the  mili- 
tary the  instruments  of  their  private  revenge,  and  my 
condition  becoming  more  and  more  perilous  each  day, 
my  family  became  convinced  that  my  life  was  in  danger, 
as  did  other  friends,  and  all  believed  that  my  presence 
at  home  imperilled  instead  of  securing  the  safety  of  my 
wife  and  children.  I  therefore  yielded  to  the  entreaties 


280  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPEKIENCES 

of  my  family  and  friends  to  leave  home  for  a  time,  and  I 
consented  to  do  so  the  more  readily  as  I  had  debts 
owing  to  me  in  the  adjoining  counties  of  Blount,  Sevier, 
Cocke,  and  Granger,  for  advertising.  I  accordingly 
left  home  the  first  week  in  November,  on  horseback, 
in  company  with  Eev.  James  Gumming,  and  whilst 
I  was  still  in  Blount — less  than  thirty  miles  from  home 
— the  bridges  on  the  railroad  were  destroyed  by  fire. 
My  absence  at  the  time  was  seized  upon  as  evidence  of 
my  complicity  in  the  matter,  although  I  was  not  nearer 
than  one  day's  ride  of  the  railroad,  and  on  Sunday, 
the  day  after  the  burning,  I  preached  to  a  large  con- 
gregation in  Sevierville. 

But  the  most  intense  excitement  prevailed  in  the 
country  after  the  news  was  circulated ;  harangues  were 
delivered  in  the  towns  and  military  camps,  and  the 
passions  of  the  Secession  citizens  and  of  the  soldiers 
were  inflamed;  and  my  knowledge  of  the  history  of 
mankind  in  the  past  taught  me  that  in  such  seasons  of 
high  excitement  the  innocent  and  the  guilty  would 
suffer  together.  Meanwhile,  I  learned,  by  express- 
riders  friendly  to  me,  that  this  vile  man  Wood  had 
sent  out  scouts  of  cavalry  after  me  in  different  direc- 
tions, with  instructions,  publicly  given  them  on  the 
street,  not  to  take  me  a  prisoner,  but  to  shoot  me  down 
upon  sight.  Military  law  was  declared  in  Knoxville; 
the  city  was  guarded,  and  those  who  escaped  from  the 
city  to  give  me  word  had  to  cross  the  river  after  night 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  281 

in  a  canoe.  In  this  state  of  things,  prudence  dictated 
that  I  should  for  a  time  conceal  myself  from  the  gaze 
of  these  bloodhounds  and  authorized  murderers,  so 
that  no  occasion  should  occur  for  violence  to  my  person. 
Quite  a  number  of  us — among  whom  were  members  of 
the  Legislature,  preachers,  and  planters — retired  into 
the  Smoky  Mountains,  separating  North  Carolina  from 
Tennessee,  and  quite  beyond  the  precincts  of  civiliza- 
tion. Amidst  the  high  summits  of  this  range  of  moun- 
tains, and  in  one  of  their  deep  gorges  where  no  vehicle 
had  ever  penetrated,  we  struck  up  camp,  and  for  days 
and  nights  together  we  stayed  there.  Our  friends  from 
Wear's  Cove  conveyed  provisions  to  us,  and  in  the 
mean  time  one  of  our  party  killed  a  fat  bear,  which 
supplied  us  with  meat.  In  the  cove  below  us  there 
was  a  company  of  "Home-Guards," — Union  men, — well 
armed,  who  kept  a  watch  for  our  pursuers,  who  failed 
to  learn  our  whereabouts.  We  were  high  up  on  the 
east  fork  of  Little  Eiver,  and  there  was  but  one  gap 
through  which  we  could  have  been  approached,  and 
in  that  event  it  would  have  required  a  large  force  to 
take  us. 

Scouts  were  multiplied  to  search  for  us,  and  we  were 
made  acquainted  with  that  fact;  and,  as  it  was  known 
that  we  were  in  Tuckaluchee  Cove  and  in  Wear's  Cove, 
we  deemed  it  prudent  to  disperse,  and  to  secrete  our- 
selves in  different  places,  two-and-two  together.  I  re- 
solved upon  going  within  six  or  eight  miles  of  Knox- 

24* 


282  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

ville,  where  I  had  Union  friends  who  would  take  care 
of  rne ;  and,  accordingly,  the  Kev.  W.  T.  Dowell  and 
myself  mounted  our  horses  at  dark,  having  previously 
come  down  out  of  the  mountains,  and,  riding  something 
less  than  forty  miles  through  the  deep  gorges,  daylight 
brought  us  to  the  comfortable  lodgings  of  a  friend. 
Here  we  tarried  for  a  time,  and  were  put  in  secret 
communication  with  Knoxville,  distant  six  miles,  having 
removed  our  horses  to  another  point.  Learning  that 
the  murderous  scouts  of  the  still  more  bloodthirsty  and 
despicable  Wood  were  still  after  me,  I  addressed  the 
following  note  to  Brigadier-General  Carroll: — 

Friday,  Nov.  22,  1861. 

GENERAL  W.  H.  CARROLL  : — 

Having  understood  that  you  are  to  be  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  military  post  at  Knoxville  in  a  few  days, 
I  desire  to  lay  a  statement  of  facts  before  you.  I  left 
home  on  the  4th  of  this  month  to  attend  the  Chancery 
Court  in  Maryville,  Blount  county,  and  to  go  from 
there  to  Sevierville,  to  collect  fees  due  me  for  adver- 
tising ,  and  in  part  I  have  succeeded.  I  have  not  been 
concerned  in  getting  up  an  armed  force  to  war  upon 
your  troops,  as  falsely  reported. 

I  left  home,  and  have  remained  absent  for  eighteen 
days,  at  the  earnest  and  repeated  solicitations  of  my 
family,  who  insisted  that  they  would  be  more  secure 
in  my  absence.  Certain  troops  came  daily  on  my 
portico,  and,  in  front  of  my  dwelling,  drew  out  and 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  283 

flourished  side-knives,  and  sometimes  presented  mus- 
kets, threatening  my  life.  I  was  told  that  they  were 
under  the  command  of  an  Alabama  officer  by  the  name 
of  Wood,  and  that  he  was  arrayed  against  me. 

As  it  regards  the  bridge-burning,  I  never  had  any  in- 
timation of  any  such  purpose,  from  any  quarter.  I  con- 
demn the  act,  and  regard  it  as  an  ill-timed  measure, 
calculated  to  bring  no  good  to  any  one  or  any  party, 
but  much  harm  to  innocent  men  and  to  the  public. 
When  I,  together  with  fifteen  or  twenty  other  leading 
Union  men,  signed  a  communication  to  General  Zolli- 
coffer,  proposing  to  counsel  peace,  I  acted  in  good  faith ; 
and  I  have  kept  that  faith.  That  address  has  been 
published  in  all  the  Tennessee  papers;  and,  had  any 
purpose  to  fire  the  bridges  been  made  known  to  me,  I 
should  have  felt  bound  to  disclose  the  fact  to  the  officers 
of  the  road. 

I  am  ready  and  willing  at  any  time  to  stand  a  trial 
upon  these  or  other  points  before  any  civil  tribunal; 
but  I  protest  against  being  turned  over  to  any  in- 
furiated  mob  of  armed  men  filled  with  prejudice  by 
my  bitterest  enemies. 

This  communication  will  be  handed  to  you  by  my 
friend  Colonel  John  Williams,  a  man  favorably  known 
to  you  and  the  country. 

I  am,  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


284  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

"  HEAD-QUARTERS,  KNOXVILLE,  Nov.  28,  1861. 

"  REV.  DR.  BROWNLOW  : — 

"  It  is  my  business  here  to  aiFord  protection  to  all 
citizens  who  are  loyal  to  the  Confederate  States ;  and  I 
shall  use  all  the  force  at  my  command  to  that  end. 
You  may  he  fully  assured  that  you  will  meet  with  no 
personal  violence  by  returning  to  your  home ;  and,  if 
you  can  establish  what  you  say  in  your  letter  of  the 
22d  inst.,  you  shall  have  every  opportunity  to  do  so  be- 
fore the  civil  tribunal,  if  it  is  necessary, — PROVIDED 

YOU  HAVE  COMMITTED  NO  ACT  THAT  WILL  MAKE   IT   NE- 
CESSARY FOR  THE  MILITARY  LAW  TO  TAKE  COGNIZANCE. 

"I  desire  that  every  loyal  citizen,  regardless  of 
former  political  opinions,  shall  be  fully  protected  in  all 
his  rights  and  privileges ;  and  to  accomplish  which  I 
shall  bend  all  my  energies,  and  have  no  doubt  I  shall 
be  successful.  Respectfully,  &c., 

"  WM.  H.  CARROLL, 

"Brig.- Gen.  Com" 


THURSDAY,  December  4,  1861. 

GENERAL  W.  H.  CARROLL  : — 

Your  letter  of  the  28th  ult.  did  not  reach  me  until 
the  1st  inst.,  and  I  return,  for  an  answer  to  the  slan- 
derous charges  whispered  into  your  ears  by  my 
cowardly  enemies,  touching  myself  and  others,  as  the 
correspondents  of  men  in  Kentucky,  and  as  knowing 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  285 

the  bridges  were  to   be  burned,  the  following  docu- 
ments : — • 

"  The  undersigned,  being  charged  with  having  and 
reading  a  letter  in  Maryville,  during  the  fourth  and 
fifth  days  of  November  past,  purporting  to  say  that 
the  railroad-bridges  were  to  be  burned,  take  this 
method  of  testifying  to  the  public  that  there  is  not 
one  word  of  truth  in  the  entire  statement;  that  we 
have  neither  seen,  handled,  read,  or  heard  read,  any 
letter  on  that  subject,  from  any  quarter  whatsoever. 
We  further  state,  upon  our  oaths,  that  neither  of  us 
has  received  from,  or  addressed  or  conveyed  to,  any 
person  in  Kentucky,  or  connected  with  the  Federal 
army,  during  the  entire  summer  and  fall,  any  private 
letter  touching  the  war  or  the  troubles  growing  out  of 
the  war.  We  also  testify,  upon  our  oaths,  that  we  had 
no  knowledge  whatsoever  of  any  purpose  or  plot,  on 
the  part  of  any  persons  or  party,  to  burn  the  bridges : 
had  we  been  apprized  of  such  a  movement,  we  should 
have  protested  against  it  as  an  outrage.  Subscribed 
and  sworn  to  this  2d  of  December,  1861. 

"  JAMES  GUMMING, 
"  W.  G.  BROWNLOW, 
"  W.  T.  DOWELL. 

"  Personally  appeared  before  me,  an  acting  Justice  of 
the  Peace  in  and  for  the  County  of  Blount  and  State  of 


286  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Tennessee,  this  2d  of  December,  1861,  James  Gumming, 
W.  Gr.  Brownlow,  and  W.  T.  Dowell,  and  made  oath, 
in  due  form  of  law,  that  the  allegations  set  forth  in  the 
foregoing  statement,  and  subscribed  by  them,  are  true. 

"  SOLOMON  FARMER, 
"  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  Blount  County'1 

Mr.  Gumming  is  now  in  his  seventy-seventh  year, 
has  all  his  life  long  sustained  an  unblemished  charac- 
ter, has  been  a  Methodist  itinerant  preacher  for  the 
last/orty  years,  and  previous  to  that  served  two  cam- 
paigns under  General  Jackson,  associated  with  your 
venerable  father,  General  Coffee,  and  other  patriots,  in 
defending  our  whole  country — not  a  part  of  it — against 
the  combined  assaults  of  our  British  and  savage  foes, — 
undergoing  the  hardships  of  camp-life  among  the  inhos- 
pitable swamps  of  Mobile  and  New  Orleans.  Indeed, 
he  was  a  major  in  Colonel  Williams's  regiment  of  Ten- 
nessee Volunteers ;  and  that  gallant  officer,  afterwards 
a  Senator  in  Congress,  bore  witness  to  the  courage  and 
fidelity  of  Mr.  Gumming.  His  character  and  services 
ought  to  shield  him  in  his  declining  years  from  such 
slanders  as  are  now  heaped  upon  him,  and  would  do 
it  were  he  living  anywhere  else  than  in  this  so-called 
Southern  Confederacy.  But  he  is  a  Union  man,  op- 
posed to  the  disruption  of  the  Government  he  has  suf- 
fered and  fought  for;  and  this  is  the  head  and  front 
of  his  offending. 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  237 

Mr.  Dowell  is  a  native  of  Alabama,  but  has  lived  nearly 
all  his  life  in  East  Tennessee,  sustaining  the  character 
of  an  honest  man,  in  the  counties  of  Anderson,  Carter, 
Sevier,  Knox,  and  Blount,  where  he  is  now  a  respect- 
able merchant  and  an  acceptable  local  preacher  in  the 
Methodist  Church.  But  he  is  a  Union  man,  loyal  to 
the  Government  of  the  United  States,  and  opposed  to 
the  heresy  of  Secession ;  and  this  is  the  reason  why  he 
is  assailed. 

So  far  as  I  am  concerned,  I  have  labored  for  years, 
in  my  humble  way,  to  help  build  up  this  great  line  of 
railroads,  and  I  can  have  no  desire  to  see  them  de- 
stroyed. If  the  Federal  Government  succeed  in  reco- 
vering this  country,  it  will  need  the  facilities  these 
roads  afford ;  but  if  the  Confederates  hold  the  country, 
the  roads  are  alike  important  to  the  citizens  of  all 
parties.  No  good  can  come  to  anybody  from  the  de- 
struction of  these  roads,  but  much  harm  to  individuals 
and  to  the  public  at  large. 

No  candid  man  of  any  party  believes  that  I  am  even 
remotely  connected  with  the  recent  burning  of  these 
bridges ;  but  to  charge  it  upon  me,  and  raise  a  clamor 
through  the  country,  affords  a  pretext,  though  flimsy 
it  be,  for  seizing  upon  my  property,  as  has  been  done, 
by  a  military  mob,  and  appropriating  it  to  the  use  of 
your  so-called  Confederacy.  It  was  not  enough  that  I 
should  be  refused  the  privilege  of  publishing  my  paper, 
but  my  press,  engine,  and  type  have  been  seized  upon, 


288  BBOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

and  I  am  refused  the  privilege  of  selling  them  to  pro- 
cure the  means  of  supporting  a  helpless  family  of  chil- 
dren. Nay,  my  office-building  has  been  taken  from 
me,  and  is  occupied  by  your  military  authorities,  with- 
out fee  or  reward  to  me.  Is  this  the  liberty  and  jus- 
tice offered  to  men  by  this  new  and  better  Government 
you  are  setting  up?  Are  these  the  blessings  of  South- 
ern Bights  so  much  talked  of?  If  so,  God  deliver  me 
and  my  children  from  their  benign  influences !  But, 
sir,  what  better  could  I  expect  from  a  bogus  Govern- 
ment, that  originated  in  fraud  and  falsehood,  perjury 
and  theft  ? 

I  have  now  been  absent  from  home  one  month, — not 
because  I  have  committed  any  crime,  but  because  I 
have  desired  no  collision  between  me  and  the  drunken 
and  infuriated  troops,  urged  to  assault  me  by  the 
cowardly  villains  who  throng  the  town,  and  whose 
frauds,  bad  morals,  and  revolting  crimes  I  have  held 
up  to  public  gaze.  I  cannot  feel  safe  in  returning,  for 
I  am  not  sure  that  your  letter  offers  protection  to  me. 
You  say  it  is  your  "  business  here  to  afford  protection 
to  all  citizens  who  are  loyal  to  the  Confederate  /States." 
If  you  mean  by  loyalty  faithfulness  and  fidelity,  I  can 
scarcely  hope  for  protection.  I  am  loyal  to  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  and  that  is  the  only  Govern- 
ment I  consider  as  having  an  existence  in  this  country. 
I  have  studied  the  Bible  for  many  years,  and  I  have 
great  respect  for  the  lessons  it  has  taught  me.  One 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  289 

of  these  lessons  is,  that  I  must  not  attempt  to  serve 
TWO  MASTERS.  I  am  therefore  a  Union  man,  and  I 
must  adhere  to  the  Federal  Government  until  that  is 
destroyed, — which  I  hope  and  trust  may  never  be  done, 
— and  then  I  will  turn  to  the  next  best  Government  I 
can  find. 

I  am  not  in  arms  against  your  Confederacy.  I  have 
not  encouraged  rebellion  on  the  part  of  Union  men,  but 
the  reverse ;  and  I  am  quietly  awaiting  the  result  of 
the  contest  going  on.  In  this  neutral  condition  I  feel 
that  I  ought  to  be  let  alone,  and  left  to  the  quiet  enjoy- 
ment of  opinions  I  honestly  entertain  and  cannot  con- 
scientiously surrender.  You,  but  a  few  months  ago, 
entertained  the  same  opinions  I  do,  and  acted  with  me 
in  opposition  to  Secession.  Toward  me,  personally,  1 
think  you  would  entertain  none  but  kind  feelings,  were 
you  not  associated  with  the  men  you  are.  I  understand 
that  your  daily  associates  are  John  H.  Crozier,  J.  Cro- 
zier  Ramsey,  and  W.  H.  Sneed. 

Crozier  blames  me  for  driving  him  into  private  life. 
He  is  a  corrupt  demagogue,  a  selfish  liar,  and  an  un- 
mitigated coward.  I  have  held  him  up  to  public  gaze, 
in  this  threefold  capacity,  from  the  stump  and  through 
the  press,  before  his  face  and  behind  his  back,  and  he 
has  never  had  the  spirit  to  resent  it  until  recently,  and 
then  only  by  hiding  behind  your  volunteers  and  seek- 
ing to  hiss  them  on  me.  He  also  feels  sore  under  my 
exposure  of  his  brother,  A.  R.  Crozier,  who  was  con- 


290  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

nected  with  the  great  swindle  practised  by  the  Bank 
of  East  Tennessee,  and,  after  making  his  pile  by  that 
operation,  packed  up  bag  and  baggage  and  cut  out  for 
Texas  !  The  records  of  our  Chancery  Court  will  give 
you  the  facts  in  the  case. 

Ramsey  is  but  a  few  degrees  removed  from  an  idiot. 
He  is  the  nephew  of  the  Croziers  and  the  son  of  one  of 
the  directors  of  this  villainous  bank,  against  whom  I 
instituted  and  recovered  an  important  suit,  exposing 
the  father,  the  uncle,  and  the  entire  Democratic  swindle. 
Young  Eamsey  is  smarting  under  the  part  I  took  in 
helping  to  defeat  him  for  the  United  States  Congress, 
when  he  was  beaten  two  thousand  votes  by  Horace 
Maynard.  Somebody  once  said,  "That  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  blind  the  one-eyed  are  monarchs;"  and  I  suppose 
it  was  upon  this  principle,  if  we  give  the  maxim  a  lite- 
ral construction,  that  young  Kamsey,  with  his  "one 
talent,"  was  elevated  to  such  a  pitch  as  to  be  made  a 
Confederate  Attorney  by  Jeff  Davis  ! 

/Sneed  is  a  noble  specimen  of  the  physical  man.  Cor- 
pulent, swaggering,  a  giant  in  his  own  estimation,  his 
form  looms  up  in  the  distance,  and  when  he  is  on  the 
street  he  makes  the  whole  town  know  it !  His  whole 
figure  exhibits  a  majesty  of  proportion,  a  majesty  of 
combination,  sometimes  seen  in  the  liquor-shop  statues 
with  whom  he  associates.  His  eyelashes  are  nearly 
scorched  off  by  alcoholic  fire ;  and  nature,  to  keep  up 
appearances,  in  a  fit  of  desperation  is  substituting  in 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  291 

their  stead  a  binding  of  red,  which  looks  like  two  little 
rainbows  hanging  upon  a  storm,  such  as  he  often  passes 
through  in  the  domestic  circle  !  This  man  has  been  a 
candidate  for  all  the  offices  of  honor  and  profit  that 
have  come  up  during  his  long  residence  in  East  Ten- 
nessee, and  never  was  successful  but  once,  when  he  was 
elected  to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  The  peo- 
Dle  then  complained  that  he  was  elected  through  the  in- 
fluence of  my  press,  for  I  entered  heartily  into  his  sup- 
port, as  he  was  a  Whig  and  his  competitor  a  Democrat. 
In  Congress  his  associates  were  Disunionists  and  his 
votes  were  sectional.  He  was  not  again  a  candidate. 
Indeed,  a  press  like  mine  in  each  of  the  ten  counties  in 
the  district  could  not  have  re-elected  him.  When 
Secession  turned  up,  he  pitched  in,  and  became  a  can- 
didate to  represent  Knox  county  in  the  Convention. 
Out  of  four  thousand  votes  polled  in  a  single-handed 
contest  he  obtained  two  hundred  and  thirty.  Since 
then  he  has  been  travelling  in  search  of  his  rights,  and 
swears  that  he  will  follow  them  on  to  the  other  side  of 
sundown ! 

Whenever  the  Federal  army  shall  approach  Tennes- 
see in  force,  Crozier,  Kamsey,  Sneed,  and  others  of  the 
same  clique,  will  fall  back  into  the  Cotton  States,  and 
call  upon  the  mountains  and  hills  to  hide  them  from 
the  wrath  of  the  Union  men  in  East  Tennessee  whom 
they  have  persecuted,  insulted,  and  sought  to  have  mur- 
dered by  your  drunken  and  infuriated  troops.  These 


292  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

are  certainly  accomplished  and  erudite  reformers  of  our 
National  Government !  Mark  my  prediction :  these  men 
will  take  to  their  heels  upon  the  approach  of  one  regi- 
ment of  Federal  troops.  I  know  the  men  and  have 
studied  their  characters.  I  may  not  be  living  when  a 
Federal  army  enters  East  Tennessee,  but  if  I  am  living 
next  spring,  I  expect  to  enjoy  the  luxury.  If  this  be 
treason,  make  the  most  of  it ! 

As  this  letter  to  you  is  private,  General,  and  as  you 
were  until  recently  a  Union  man,  you  must  allow  me 
tov  deal  candidly  with  you.  I  have  no  idea  that  you 
approve  this  Secession  movement,  but  feel  certain 
that  in  your  heart  you  despise  the  whole  affair.  As 
long  as  I  see  the  spirit  of  the  rebellion  acted  out  by 
your  leaders,  and  as  long  as  I  bear  in  mind  the  charac- 
ters of  the  men  who  originated  it,  I  can  but  despise  the 
whole  concern  and  desire  its  overthrow.  I  may  not 
be  gratified  with  seeing  this  rebellion  put  down,  but 
my  children  will ;  and,  if  I  am  not  assassinated  by  the 
hired  tools  of  some  of  your  new  associates,  I  will  live 
to  see  the  rebellion  closed  out,  and  not  be  more  than 
one  year  older  than  I  now  am ! 

I  am,  sir,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

My  friend,  who  was  in  charge  of  the  foregoing  letter, 
withheld  it  from  General  Carroll,  on  account  of  the 
following  epistles,  intended  for  me,  and  of  the  ex- 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  293 

istence  of  which  I  had  no  knowledge  at  the  time  I 
wrote  the  one  of  the  4th  of  December: — 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  KNOXVILLE,  TENN.,  Dec.  4,  1861. 

"  W.  G.  BROWNLOW,  ESQ.  : — The  Major-General 
commanding  directs  me  to  say  that  upon  calling  at 
his  head-quarters,  within  twenty-four  hours,  you  can 
get  a  passport  to  go  into  Kentucky,  accompanied  by  a 
military  escort,  the  route  to  be  designated  by  General 
Crittenden. 

"  I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

"A.  S.  CUNNINGHAM, 
"  Acting  Adjutant- General." 

The  following  letter,  a  copy  of  which  I  was  fur- 
nished with  on  the  day  and  date  of  the  foregoing, 
seems  to  have  been  withheld,  or,  at  least,  not  acted  upon, 
for  ten  days  : — 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  OP  AMERICA,         •» 
"WAR  DEPARTMENT,  RICHMOND,  Nov.  20, 1861. ) 

"  To  MAJOR-GENERAL  CRITTENDEN  : — 

"DEAR  SIR: — I  have  been  asked  to  grant  a  pass- 
port for  Brownlow,  to  leave  the  State  of  Tennessee. 
He  is  said  to  have  secreted  himself,  fearing  violence 
to  his  person,  and  to  be  anxious  to  depart  from  the 
State. 

"  I  cannot  give  him  a  formal  passport,  though  I  would 
greatly  prefer  seeing  him  on  the  other  side  of  our 

25* 


294  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPEKIENCES 

xines,  as  an  avowed  enemy.     I  wish,  however,  to  say 
that  I  would  be  glad  to  learn  that  he  has  left  Ten- 
nessee;   and  I  have  no  objection  to  interpose  to  his 
leaving,  if  you  are  willing  to  let  him  pass. 
"  Yours,  truly, 

"  J.  P.  BENJAMIN, 

"/Secretary  of  War." 

It  turned  out,  upon  examination,  that  Colonel  Bax- 
ter,-of  Knoxville,  a  moderate  Secessionist,  was  in  Rich- 
mond  at  the  time  Mr.  Benjamin  wrote  to  General  Crit- 
tenden, and  made  this  application  without  my  know- 
ledge. He  was  doubtless  influenced  by  two  motives, — 
one  of  friendship  to  me  and  my  family,  and  a  con- 
viction in  his  mind  that  I  would  be  assassinated  if  I 
remained. 

Belying  upon  this  promise  of  passports  into  Ken- 
tucky and  of  the  protection  of  a  military  escort,  I  re- 
ported myself  in  person  to  General  Crittenden  before  the 
twenty-four  hours  had  expired,  and  was  accompanied 
by  Colonel  Baxter.  I  there  and  then  obtained  from 
General  Crittenden  a  renewal  of  his  promise.  This  was 
on  the  5th;  and  the  morning  of  the  7th  was  agreed 
upon  for  me  to  start,  and  Captain  Gillespie  was  desig- 
nated as  the  man  to  put  me  through  with  his  company 
of  cavalry.  Before  that  time  arrived,  I  was  arrested 
upon  a  warrant  for  treason,  issued  by  Kobert  B.  Rey- 
nolds, the  Confederate  Commissioner, — a  third-rate 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  295 

county-court  lawyer,  a  drunken  and  corrupt  sot,  who 
had  been  kicked  out  of  a  grocery  a  few  days  before  by 
a  mechanic,  and  who  was  afterwards  taken  up  from  the 
pavements  of  the  street,  in  a  beastly  state  of  intoxica- 
tion, by  Rebel  troops,  and  lodged  in  the  guard-house ! 
See  a  drawing  of  this  beautiful  specimen  of  a  judge, — a 
fit  representative  of  the  morality  and  integrity  of  the 
Confederate  Government ! 

Here  follows  the  warrant,  issued  upon  the  applica- 
tion and  false  swearing  of  that  corrupt  scoundrel  and 
most  unprincipled  knave,  J.  Crozier  Ramsey,  Confede- 
rate Attorney  for  the  State  of  Tennessee : — 


"CONFEDERATE  STATES  OF  AMERICA,! 
"DISTRICT  OF  TENNESSEE.          J 

"  To  THE  MARSHAL  OF  SAID  DISTRICT  : — 

"  J.  C.  Ramsey,  Confederate  States  District  Attorney 
for  said  district,  having  MADE  OATH  before  me, 
that  he  is  informed  and  believes  that  William  G. 
Brownlow,  a  citizen  of  said  district,  and  owing  alle- 
giance and  fidelity  to  the  Confederate  States,  but, 
being  moved  and  seduced  by  the  instigation  of  the 
devil,  and  not  having  the  fear  of  God  before  his  eyes, 
did  wilfully,  knowingly,  and  with  malice  aforethought, 
and  feloniously,  commit  the  crime  of  TREASON 
against  the  Confederate  States,  by  then  and  there, 
within  said  district  and  since  the  I0th  day  of  June 


296  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

last,  publishing  a  weekly  and  tri-weekly  paper,  known 
as  'Brownlow's  Knoxville  Whig/  said  paper  had  a 
large  circulation  in  said  district,  and  also  circulated 
in  the  United  States,  and  contained,  weekly,  divers  of 
editorials  written  by  the  said  Brownlow,  which  said 
editorials  were  treasonable  against  the  Confederate 
States  of  America,  and  did  then  and  there  commit 
treason,  and  prompt  others  to  commit  treason,  bv 
•speech  as  well  as  publication ;  did  as  aforesaid  commit 
treason,  and  did  give  aid  and  comfort  to  the  United 
States,  both  of  said  Governments  being  in  a  state  of 
war  with  each  other.  You  are  therefore  commanded 
to  arrest  the  said  Brownlow,  and  bring  him  before 
me,  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  law  directs. 

"  E.  B.  EEYNOLDS, 

"  Commissioner,  $c. 
"  J.  C.  EAMSEY, 

"  C.S.  Dist.  Att'y. 

"  December  6,  1861." 

I  was  arrested  by  the  marshal,  refused  a  trial,  and 
refused  bail,  though  my  friends  voluntarily  offered  a 
bond  of  ONE  HUNDRED  THOUSAND  DOLLARS.  While  in 
the  hands  of  the  marshal,  I  addressed  the  following 
note  to  General  Crittenden,  and  sent  it  by  Colonel 
Williams :— 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  297 

KNOXVILLE,  Dec.  6,  1861. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  CRITTENBEN: — I  am  now  under 
an  arrest,  upon  a  warrant  issued  by  Commissioner 
Beynolds,  at  the  instance  of  J.  Crozier  Eamsey,  upon 
a  charge  of  treason,  founded  upon  sundry  articles 
published  in  the  Knoxville  Whig  since  the  10th  of 
June  last. 

I  am  'here,  as  you  will  recollect,  upon  your  invita- 
tion and  the  instructions  of  your  Secretary  of  War  to 
give  me  passports  into  the  old  Government.  Claiming 
your  protection,  as  I  do,  I  shall  await  your  early 
response. 

Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

No  response  was  made  to  this  note  until  the  next 
day,  and  I  was  cast  into  prison.  This  gross  breach 
of  faith,  both  by  the  War  Department  at  Kichmond 
and  the  general  in  command  at  Knoxville,  is  a  dis- 
grace to  the  Confederate  Government, — if  such  a  Gov- 
ernment, originating  as  it  did  in  fraud,  falsehood,  and 
perjury,  can  be  disgraced ! 

The  next  day  I  received  from  a  self-conceited  mem- 
ber of  General  Crittenden's  staff — a  fellow  late  from 
California — the  following  note.  After  receiving  this 
note,  I  gave  up  the  chase,  and  felt  that  the  whole  con- 
cern, civil  and  military,  were  alike  unreliable,  having 
no  regard  for  their  pledges  : — 


298  BEOWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

"  KNOXVILLE,  Dec.  7,  1861. 

"  W.  G.  BEOWNLOW  :— 

"  SIE  : — Your  note,  stating  that  you  were  under 
an  arrest  upon  a  warrant  upon  a  charge  of  treason,  &c., 
has  been  handed  to  General  Crittenden. 

"  He  desires  me  to  say,  in  reply,  that  in  view  of  all 
of  the  facts  of  the  case,  (which  need  not  be  recapitu- 
lated here,  for  you  are  familiar  with  them,)  HE  DOES 

NOT  CONSIDEE  THAT  YOU  AEE  HEEE  UPON  HIS  INVI- 
TATION IN  SUCH  MANNEE  AS  TO  CLAIM  HIS  PEOTECTION 
FEOM  AN  INVESTIGATION  BY  THE  CIVIL  AUTHORITIES 

OF  THE  CHAEGES  AGAINST  YOU,  which  he  clearly  under- 
stood from  yourself  and  your  friends  you  would  not 
seek  to  avoid. 

"  Respectfully,  yours,  &c., 

"HAEEY  I.  THOENTON, 
"A.D.C." 

This  corrupt  man  Eamsey,  after  issuing  this  warrant, 
accompanied  it  with  a  part  of  one  of  the  editorials  he 
had  falsely  sworn  was  issued  since  the  10th  of  June, 
1861,  at  which  time  the  State  voted  out.  He  only 
gave  that  part  of  the  article  relating  to  the  railroads, 
commencing  with  the  words,  "Let  the  railroad  on 
which,"  &c. ;  and,  although  he  swore  in  his  warrant,  and 
published  the  falsehood  in  the  paper,  that  the  article 
appeared  since  the  10th  of  June,  the  truth  is  it 
appeared  on  the  25th  of  May,  and  before  the  State 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  299 

voted  out !  One  of  the  reasons  why  he  refused  me  a 
trial  was  that  he  knew  I  would  produce  a  file  of  my 
papers  and  convict  him  of  false  swearing.  Here  is, 
however,  the  entire  article  : — 

"Murder  Will  Out," 

A  secret  of  some  importance  has  been  cautiously 
communicated  to  this  city  from  Alabama,  by  a  man 
not  likely  to  be  deceived.  The  same  facts,  in  substance, 
have  been  intrusted  to  a  most  estimable  individual 
here,  under  the  solemn  injunction  of  secrecy  for  a 
specified  time.  There  are  now  three  other  gentlemen 
besides  ourselves,  and  they  are  men  of  high  positions, 
wno  know  the  facts  and  have  the  evidence  of  them. 
This  stupendous  and  appalling  conspiracy  amounts  to 
this :  Johnson,  Nelson,  Baxter,  Temple,  Trigg,  May- 
nard,  Brownlow,  and  George  W.  Bridges,  are  to  be 
arrested  after  the  election  in  June,  by  a  military  force, 
and  taken  in  irons  to  Montgomery,  and  either  punished 
for  treason,  or  held  as.  hostages  to  guarantee  the  quiet 
surrender  of  the  Union  men  of  East  Tennessee ! 

The  facts  of  this  conspiracy  against  the  rights  of 
American  citizens,  together  with  the  names  of  those 
concerned  in  urging  it  on,  will  all  be  left  in  the 
hands  of  reliable,  bold,  and  fearless  men,  who  will 
make  them  public  at  the  proper  time.  The  thousands 
of  Union  men  of  East  Tennessee,  devoted  to  principle 
and  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  those  who  fell  at  the 


300  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

hands  of  these  conspirators,  will  be  expected  to  avenge 
their  wrongs !  Let  the  railroad  on  which  Union  citi- 
zens of  East  Tennessee  are  conveyed  to  Montgomery 
in  irons  be  eternally  and  hopelessly  destroyed !  Let 
the  property  of  the  men  concerned  be  consumed,  and 
let  their  lives  pay  the  forfeit,  and  the  names  will  be 
given !  Let  the  fires  of  patriotic  vengeance  be  built 
upon  the  Union  altars  of  the  whole  land,  and  let  them 
go  out  where  these  conspirators  live,  like  the  fires  from 
the  Lord,  that  consumed  Nadab  and  Abihu,  the  two 
sons  of  Aaron,  for  presumption  less  sacrilegious !  If 
we  are  incarcerated  at  Montgomery,  or  executed  there 
or  even  elsewhere,  all  the  consolation  we  want  is  to 
know  that  our  partisan  friends  have  visited  upon  our  per- 
secutors— certain  Secession  leaders — a  most  horrible 
vengeance !  Let  it  be  done,  East  Tennesseeans,  though 
the  gates  of  hell  be  forced  and  the  heavens  be  made 
to  fall ! 

In  disclosing  this  bold  and  deep-laid  plot  against  the 
liberties  of  freemen,  we  have  not.  intended  a  sensation 
article.  Some  may  smile  at  its  alleged  senseless  ab- 
surdity, but  we  are  not  alone  in  putting  forth  these 
facts.  We  most  solemnly  implore  our  friends  through- 
out East  Tennessee,  as  they  regard  our  welfare  and  as 
they  cherish  the  principles  for  which  we  are  alike 
battling,  not  to  molest  any  person  or  property  in  ad- 
vance of  an  attack  upon  any  of  us,  but  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  action,  ACTION,  ACTION !  As 


^  < 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  301 

yet  the  conspiracy  is  only  partially  revealed, — the 
murder  partly  out :  the  mask  will  be  taken  off  in  due 
time !  We  are  not  in  possession  of  the  names  of  any 
confederates  and  abettors  outside  of  the  limits  of  East 
Tennessee,  though  some  have  been  closeted  with  East 
Tennesseeans  and  the  details  of  their  plans  agreed 
upon.  Again,  in  the  name  of  every  thing  sacred,  we 
ask  for  ourselves,  and  those  threatened  with  us,  that 
no  move  shall  be  made  by  our  friends  towards  injuring 
the  person  or  property  of  any  living  man  or  existing 
corporation,  until  further  developments  are  made;  and 
then  let  every  brave  man  act,  and  let  all  act  together. 
Thanks  be  to  God  for  the  vigilance  of  some  true  men, 
and  for  their  promptness  in  making  communications! 
A  Union  man,  of  high  character,  who  will  disguise 
himself  and  travel  hundreds  of  miles  at  his  own  ex- 
pense to  serve  true  men  to  him  personally  unknown, 
deserves  to  be  immortalized,  and  to  live  forever ! . 

This  man  Hamsey,  in  swearing  a  lie  with  a  view  to 
injure  me,  was  influenced  by  his  deep-seated  malice. 
He  is  the  son  of  the  vain  old  historian  of  Tennessee, 
against  whom  I  brought  and  sustained  a  suit  for  a 
nefarious  bank-swindle,  and  to  avoid  the  damages  of 
which,  the  old  rebel  has  put  his  property  out  of  his 
hands,  making  this  corrupt  son  the  trustee ! 

Besides,  this  Attorney  for  the  Commonwealth  of  the 
Confederacy  attempted  to  get  up  a  company  of  volun- 

26 


302  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

teers,  but  never  was  able  to  muster  more  than  thirty 
men ;  and,  being  detected  in  drawing  rations  and  cloth- 
ing for  sixty-five,  he  was,  under  General  Zollicoffer's 
reign  at  Knoxville,  drummed  out  of  the  service.  Let 
the  reader  turn  to  the  drawing  of  this  man,  and  look 
at  his  hang-dog  countenance  as  he  "retires"  to  the 
tune  of  the  Rogues'  March  I 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  303 


CHAPTER  XX. 

BEING  refused  a  trial  and  refused  bail,  as  good  and 
as  strong  as  East  Tennessee  could  afford,  I  was  con- 
fined in  the  common  jail  of  the  county.  And  for  what? 
For  treason  growing  out  of  newspaper  editorials  !  The 
warrant  sued  out  by  this  judicial  functionary  contains 
within  itself  no  charge  of  treason,  though  he  after- 
wards brought  out  a  garbled  extract  from  the  fore- 
going editorials,  and  alleged  that  therein  lay  the  trea- 
son. Every  man  of  legal  knowledge  will  see  that  the 
publication  of  a  newspaper,  however  objectionable  its 
matter  may  be,  does  not  amount  to  treason.  The 
object  of  this  hardened  villain,  and  the  numerous 
cowardly  scoundrels  associated  with  him,  was  to  sub- 
ject me  to  close  confinement  in  a  crowded  and  most 
uncomfortable  jail.  In  this  these  vile  conspirators  suc- 
ceeded; but  the  reader  will  agree,  after  perusing  these 
pages,  that  they  have  made  but  little  by  the  operation. 
And  when  the  whole  affair  is  done  with,  they  will  have 
made  still  less. 

I  became  satisfied,  after  I  went  into  jail  and  had 
slips  of  newspapers  conveyed  to  me,  that  General 
Carxpll  had  not  acted  in  good  faith  towards  me.  Take, 


304  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

for  instance,  the  following  dispatch,  on  the  day  I  wa? 
committed.  It  is  from  the  pen  of  young  Mr.  Brett, 
whom  I  found  to  be  in  some  way  connected  with  Gene- 
ral Carroll's  staff,  and  who  visited  my  prison  frequently, 
and  treated  me  and  my  family  with  the  courtesy  and 
kindness  of  a  gentleman. 

[Special  Dispatch  to  the  Memphis  Appeal.] 

"  KNOXVILLE,  Dec.  6. 

"  Dr.  W.  G.  Brownlow,  late  editor  of  the  Knoxville 
"Whig,  was  arrested  to-day  by  order  of  Brigadier- Gene- 
ral Carroll,  and  committed  to  jail  to  await  his  trial  on 
the  charge  of  treason.  General  Carroll  is  pursuing  a 
determined  and  vigorous  policy,  which  is  exercising  a 
salutary  effect  upon  the  traitors  in  this  section.  The 
arrest  of  Brownlow  will  do  much  to  quell  their  insur- 
rectionary spirit. 

"There  has  been  some  little  skirmishing  between 
straggling  squads  of  Lincolnites  and  our  troops  above 
this  place,  but  no  outbreak  of  importance  has  occurred. 

"  The  rebellion  in  East  Tennessee  may  now  be  re- 
garded as  completely  quelled. 

"  J.  B." 

A  note  of  later  date,  from  this  same  walking  groggery 
Carroll,  addressed  to  his  corrupt  associate,  Attorney 
Ramsey,  and  afterwards  published  in  the  Secession 
organ  at  Knoxville,  goes  to  confirm  my  suspicions  that 
he  was  acting  the  part  of  a  two-faced  man  : — 

"  HEAD-QUARTERS.  KNOXVILLE,  Dec.  29. 

"  C.  S.  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY  J.  C.  KAMSEY  : 

"  SIR  : — In  answer  to  your  note  of  the  28th,  I  state 
that,  though  not  aware  of  Dr.  Brownlow's  plan  of  con- 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  305 

cealment,  his  letter  dated  November  22d  (enclosed  a 
copy  and  my  reply)  induced  me  to  believe  that  he  was 
not  very  distant  from  this  city,  and  could  have  been 
arrested.  You  will  also  see  by  his  letter  that  he 
seemed  only  to  dread  violence,  but  was  entirely  willing 
to  be  tried  before  the  civil  tribunals  for  any  offence  of 
which  he  might  be  charged. 

"  Respectfully, 

"  WM.  H.  CARROLL, 

"  Brigadier-  General" 

The  only  apology  I  can  offer  for  Carroll  in  his  decep- 
tive course  is  that  of  his  habits  of  drunkenness,  his 
villainous  associates  in  Knoxville,  and  the  fact  that  he 
occupied  as  his  quarters  the  house  of  the  most  un- 
mitigated scoundrel  in  Knoxville,  John  Hooper  Cro- 
zier} — a  man  whose  baseness  and  villainies  I  have  held 
up  to  public  gaze  for  years.  Such  cowards  and  mali- 
cious rascals  as  this  surrounded  Carroll,  took  posses- 
sion of  him,  drenched  him  in  liquor,  and  used  him  10 
do  their  dirty  work  ! 

But  I  was  thrown  into  this  jail,  a  drawing  of  which 
is  herewith  submitted,  where  I  found  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  Union  men,  old  and  young,  representing  all 
professions.  The  jail  was  so  crowded  that  on  the 
lower  floor  we  had  not  room  for  all  to  lie  down  at  one 
time.  The  prisoners  took  rest  by  turns,  a  portion 
standing  while  the  others  slept.  There  was  not  a 
chair,  bench,  stool,  block,  table,  or  any  other  article  of 
furniture,  in  the  building,  save  a  dirty  wooden  bucket 
and  a  tin  cup,  used  for  watering  the  occupants  of  the 

26* 


306  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

room.  A  bucketful  would  not  go  round,  as  the 
weather  was  at  times  warm  and  many  of  the  prisoners 
were  feverish.  To  supply  them  with  water,  a  hogshead 
was  placed  by  the  side  of  the  jail,  and  a  boy  with  a  cart 
hauled  water  through  the  day.  One  prisoner  at  a  time 
was  allowed  to  go  out  with  the  bucket  and  draw  it  full, 
under  an  escort  of  bayonets.  About  twenty-four  men 
were  kept  around  the  jail  in  arms,  and  on  the  inside 
at  the  windows,  which  were  allowed  to  be  up  in  day- 
light only  to  give  us  fresh  air.  Through  the  windows 
we  could  see  these  dirty,  sweating,  insulting,  and 
abusive  Eebel  soldiers  go  to  the  hogshead  and  wash 
their  hands  and  faces  in  it.  I  remonstrated,  telling 
these  ill-bred  fellows  that  this  water  was  our  only 
dependence  for  drinking-water.  The  reply  was,  "  By 
G — d,  sir,  we  will  have  you  know  that  where  a  Jeff 
Davis  man  washes  his  face  and  hands  is  good  enough 

for  any  d d  Lincolnite  to  drink !"  We,  of  course,  had 

no  remedy  but  to  submit. 

The  food  given  the  prisoners  to  eat  was  not  fit  fo» 
a  good  and  trusty  dog  to  devour.  It  was  composed  o^ 
the  scraps  and  leavings  of  a  dirty  hotel  kept  by  th< 
jailer  and  deputy-marshal  of  the  Confederacy, — ths 
meat  and  bread  sometimes  half  raw,  sometimes  burned, 
and  always  a  scanty  supply.  I  never  tasted  a  particle 
of  it,  but  was  allowed  the  privilege  'of  having  my 
meals  sent  from  home  three  times  each  day,  an  officer 
examining  my  basket  as  it  came  in  and  went  out,  to 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  307 

see  that  there  was  no  correspondence  between  me  and 
the  Unionists  out-of-doors.  As  this  vile  treatment  and 
loathsome  food  produced  disease,  and,  added  to  colds, 
often  fell  upon  the  bowels,  the  Eebel  brutes  who  guarded 
us  were  furnished  with  additional  opportunities  for 

offering  us  personal  indignity. 

***** 

Blackguard  songs  were  sung  for  our  benefit,  and  we 
were  all  cursed  and  denounced  both  day  and  night. 
In  marching  us  out  and  into  the  prison,  we  were  ordered 
to  "walk  faster,"  and  threatened  with  the  bayonet  if 
we  did  not  obey.  The  most  insulting  of  these  sentinels 
were  those  from  the  Cotton  States,  men  heralded  to 
the  world  as  the  "  flower  of  the  Southern  youth"  and 
the  "best  blood"  of  the  Confederacy. 

There  was  one  gentleman  who  visited  us  either  daily 
or  every  other  day :  he  was  a  gentleman  and  a  humane 
man.  I  allude  to  Dr.  Gray,  Brigade  Surgeon.  He 
did  all  he  could  to  prevent  this  sort  of  treatment,  and 
had  some  benches  made  for  the  prisoners  to  sit  on,  and 
a  sort  of  table  upon  which  to  place  their  scanty  meals. 
But  the  feeling  was,  as  a  general  thing,  that  any  sort 

of  treatment  and  fare  were  "  too  good  for  a  set  of  d d 

Union-shriekers  and  bridge-burners,"  as  they  styled 
all  the  prisoners. 

Here  my  jail-journal  commences,  written  in  prison, 
with  a  lead-pencil,  in  small  blank-books  I  kept  in  my 
side  pocket.  I  will  give  it,  without  any  polish  or  the 


308  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

slightest  improvement,  just  as  it  was  sketched, — written 
amidst  the  crowd  and  clamor  of  so  many  men,  some 
sick,  others  impatient  and  tired,  but  all  respectful  to 
me  and  kind  to  each  other. 

Friday,  (sunset,)  Dee.  6. — I  was  committed  to  the 
jail  of  Knox  county  this  evening  upon  a  warrant  sued 
out  by  the  Confederate  Attorney,  J.  C.  Ramsey,  upon 
a  false  oath  he  swore  before  a  drunken  commissioner, 
Reynolds,  charging  me  with  treason  in  the  editorials 
of  my  paper.  The  only  editorial  cited  was  written 
in  May,  before  Tennessee  separated  from  the  Federal 
Government. 

I  have  found  many  old  acquaintances  here  and  long- 
tried  friends;  and  whilst  some  were  glad  to  see  me  in 
no  worse  condition,  and  in  expectation  of  hearing  the 
current  news  of  the  day,  as  well  as  from  their  families, 
others  shed  tears  upon  taking  me  by  the  hand,  grasp- 
ing it  in  silence.  As  a  general  thing,  I  have  found 
them  down  in  spirits  and  expecting  the  worst  re- 
sults. Some  of  them  have  been  here  since  October, 
some  since  November,  and  others  were  committed  but 
recently. 

Some  of  them  have  said  to  me  that  they  "never  ex- 
pected to  come  to  this," — that  they  had  "  never  before 
looked  through  the  grates  of  a  jail."  I  have  cheered 
them  up  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  do.  Having 
them  around  me,  I  addressed  them  in  this  language : — 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  309 

"  Gentlemen,  don't  take  your  confinement  so  much 
to  heart.  Eather  glory  in  it,  as  patriots,  devoted  to 
your  country  and  to  your  principles.  What  are  you 
here  for  ?  Not  for  stealing ;  not  for  counterfeiting ;  not 
for  murder;  but  for  your  devotion  to  the  Stars  and 
Stripes,  the  glorious  old  banner  under  which  Washing- 
ton conquered,  lived,  and  died.  You  will  yet  enjoy 
your  liberties,  and  be  permitted  to  die  beneath  the  folds 
of  the  old  Star-Spangled  Banner,  the  sacred  emblem  of 
a  common  nationality.  The  Federal  Government  will 
crush  out  this  wicked  rebellion  and  liberate  us,  if  we 
are  not  brutally  murdered ;  and  if  we  are,  we  die  in  a 
good  cause.  I  am  here  with  you  to  share  your  sorrows 
and  sufferings,  and  here  I  intend  to  stay  until  the 
.Rebels  release  me  or  execute  me,  or  until  the  Federal 
army  shall  come  to  my  rescue.  You  may  take  a 
different  view  of  the  subject,  but  I  regard  this  as  the 
proudest  day  of  my  life." 

Saturday,  Dee.  7. — This  morning,  forty  of  our  num- 
ber, under  a  heavy  military  escort,  were  sent  off  to 
Tuscaloosa.  Thirty-one  others  arrived  to  take  their 
places,  from  Cocke,  Greene,  and  Jefferson  counties. 
They  bring  us  tales  of  woe  from  their  respective  coun- 
ties, as  to  the  treatment  of  Union  men  and  Union 
families  by  the  drunken  and  debauched  cavalry  in  this 
rebellion.  They  are  taking  all  the  fine  horses  they 
can  find,  and  appropriating  them  to  their  own  use;  they 


310  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

are  entering  houses,  breaking  open  drawers  and  chests, 
seizing  money,  blankets,  and  whatever  they  can  use. 

The  dirty  organ  of  the  mob  who  have  placed  me  here 
— the  Knoxville  Register — has  opened  upon  me;  and, 
now  that  I  have  no  paper  in  which  to  reply,  shut  up  in 
solitary  confinement,  it  will  keep  up  a  regular  fire  upon 
me.  The  following  notice  comes  out  this  morning : — 

"  ARREST. — William  G-.  Brownlow  was  arrested  yes- 
terday upon  a'  charge  of  treason  on  a  warrant  ordered 
by  the  Confederate  States  Commissioner  and  drawn  up 
by  the  District  Attorney.  He  was  committed  to  jail. 
His  trial  will  come  up  in  due  course  before  the  Con- 
federate Court, — perhaps  next  week.  The  rumor  of  an 
order  from  the  War  Department  for  his  safe-conduct 
to  the  North,  in  the  last  two  days,  has  created  intense 
excitement  throughout  this  country,  especially  among 
those  who  have  friends  and  relatives  now  languishing 
in  prison  on  account  of  his  teachings." 

Sunday,  Dec.  8. — Three  others  arrived  from  Cocke 
county,  telling  us  tales  of  horror  as  to  the  treatment 
of  Union  men  by  the  ruffian  troops  of  Jeff  Davis.  Self- 
styled  Vigilance  Committees  are  prowling  over  the 
country  like  wolves,  and  military  mobs,  armed  to  the 
teeth,  are  arresting  men  upon  suspicion  of  hostility  to 
their  new  Government,  and  shooting  others  down  in 
the  field.  They  speak  of  the  case  of  poor  Pearce,  a 
quiet  man,  a  Methodist  class-leader,  shot  down  in  his 
own  field  with  a  musket-ball, — not  for  any  offence  he 
had  ever  committed,  but  simply  for  being  a  Union  man. 
1  knew  him  personally,  and  know  him  to  have  been  a 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  31  x 

harmless  man.     A  brother  of  this  villainous  attorney, 
.Ramsey,  was  in  the  crowd  that  murdered  Pearce. 

Monday,  Dec.  9. — More  prisoners  arrived  this  even- 
ing. Twenty-eight  are  in  from  Jefferson  and  Cocke 
counties.  Some  of  the  Jefferson  county  prisoners  have 
given  us  the  particulars  of  the  hanging  of  Hensie  ana 
Fry  upon  the  same  limb  of  an  oak-tree  over  or  close 
by  the  railroad- track.  The  bloody  scoundrel  who  tiea 
the  knot  was  one  Colonel  Leadbetter,  a  native  of  Maine, 
who,  after  serving  fifteen  years  in  the  United  States 
army,  married  a  gang  of  negroes  at  Mobile,  and  has 
become  the  great  champion  of  Southern  Rights.  Re 
ordered  these  two  men  to  hang  four  days  and  nights, 
and  the  trains  to  pass  by  them  slowly,  so  that  the 
passengers  could  see,  and  kick,  and  strike  with  canes 
their  dead  bodies,  from  the  front  and  rear  platforms  of 
the  cars,  as  they  passed, — which  was  actually  done.  I 
shall  illustrate  the  scene  with  an  engraving  if  I  ever 
live  to  get  out  of  this  prison.  And  I  propose,  if  ever 
the  Federal  army  shall  capture  East  Tennessee, — as  1 
believe  it  will, — and  with  it  this  murderer,  Leadbetter, 
that  he  shall  hang  on  the  same  limb,  and  that  Fry's 
widow  shall  tie  the  knot  around  his  infernal  neck. 

Tuesday,  Dec.  10. — The  tedium  of  prison-life  has 
rather  oppressed  us  all  to-day.  It  has  been  relieved  a 
little  by  our  coming  in  contact  with  some  insolent 


312  BBOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Southern  negroes.  One  in  uniform,  from  Alabama, 
has  been  guarding  us  with  a  double-barrelled  shot-gun, 
and  has  been  insulting  and  abusive.  Another  negro 
came  into  the  jail  and  threw  slugs  of  lead  through  the 
grates  into  the  iron  cage  of  one  of  our  prisoners.  We 
have  all  to  submit  to  this  sort  of  treatment.  When  we 
are  put  here,  we  are  deprived  of  our  weapons,  pocket- 
knives,  and  money,  and  all  are  confiscated,  leaving  us 
helpless.  Some  of  our  men  had  several  hundred  dollars 
in  their  pockets,  and  all  had  more  or  less  money. 

One  of  the  scoundrels  who  took  an  active  part  in 
having  me  put  here  is  Colonel  W.  M.  Churchwell,  the 
great  bank-swindler,  whose  dishonesty  I  brought  to 
light  in  a  suit  in  chancery,  all  of  which  is  now  on 
record.  One  of  the  privates  in  Churchwell's  regiment, 
by  the  name  of  Barker,  is  now  here  a  prisoner  for  having 
knocked  down  his  captain.  Barker  was  run  against 
Churchwell  for  colonel,  and  actually  beat  him  one 
hundred  and  eighty  votes;  but  Carroll  gave  the  certifi- 
cate in  favor  of  Churchwell.  Churchwell  afterwards 
had  Barker  chained  to  a  tree,  and  more  recently  he 
had  Captain  Jackson  arrested  for  heading  a  petition  to 
C.  to  resign  on  the  score  of  ineompetency. 

Wednesday,  Dec.  11. — C.  A.  Haun,  a  man  about 
twenty-seven  years  of  age,  was  taken  out  to-day  and 
hung,  on  a  charge  of  bridge-burning.  He  had  but  a 
short  notice  of  his  sentence,  having  been  condemned 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  313 

without  any  defence  allowed  him  by  a  drum-head 
and  whiskey-drinking  court-martial.  I  think  that 
he  was  notified  of  his  coming  death  about  one  hour 
in  advance.  I  know  he  desired  a  Methodist  preacher 
sent  for  to  sing  and  pray  with  him,  and  this  was 
refused  him :  so  that  he  was  forced  to  exchange 
worlds  without  the  "  benefit  of  clergy."  They,  drove 
up  a  cart  with  a  cofiin  in  it,  surrounded  by  a  hardened 
set  of  Rebel  troops,  displaying  their  bayonets  and 
looking  and  talking  savagely.  It  is  stated  to  us 
that  one  of  the  Rebel  chaplains  officiated  at  the 
hanging,  and  stated  that  Haun  desired  him  to  say  that 
he  had  been  misled  by  the  Union  leaders  and  papers 
and  was  sorry  for ,  his  conduct,  whereupon  Haun  con- 
tradicted him,  and  said  that  he  had  admitted  no  such 
thing.  Haun  leaves  a  young  wife  and  two  or  three 
little  children.  I  had,  myself,  sooner  be  Haun  than 
any  one  of  his  murderers. 

Fifteen  more  prisoners  came  in  to-day  from  Greene 
and  Hancock  counties,  charged  with  having  been 
armed  as  Union  men  and  accustomed  to  drill,  which  I 
have  no  doubt  is  true.  What  their  fate  will  be,  God 
only  knows.  These  savage  beasts  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy  are  prepared  to  hang  a  man  for  saying 
that  Secession  is  wrong  or  unconstitutional,  although 
John  C.  Calhoun  admitted  this  much  himself. 


Thursday,  Dec.  12. — Fifteen  of  our  prisoners  were 

27 


314  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

started  to  Tuscaloosa  this  morning,  to  remain  there  as 
prisoners  of  war.  They  had  no  trial,  but  were  sent 
upon  their  admission  that  they  had  been  found  in  arms, 
as  Union  men,  preparing  to  defend  themselves  against 
the  murderous  assaults  and  highway-robberies  daily  com- 
mitted by  the  so-called  Confederate  cavalry.  Poor 
fellows  !  They  hated  to  go ;  and  no  wonder,  for  they 
are  treated  like  dogs  on  the  way,  as  well  as  after  they 
get  there ! 

Friday,  Deo.  13. — Three  more  prisoners  in  to-day, 
from  Hancock  and  Hawkins  counties.  Charge,  as  usual, 
Union  men,  attached  to  a  company  of  Home-Guards. 
The  Register  has  been  handed  to  me,  in  which  I  find 
the  following  cowardly  attack  from  some  one  of  the  many 
hypocrites  who  have  gone  over  to  Secession  or  been 
bribed  by  the  leaders  of  this  rebellion  :— 

(For  the  Register.) 

Brownlow, 

"  Why  is  this  ringleader  of  all  the  toryism  and  devil- 
ment in  East  Tennessee  dealt  with  so  leniently,  and 
others,  not  half  so  guilty,  punished  extremely?  We 
insist  upon  it  that  all  who  have  been  apprehended  and 
are  now  in  prison  ought  to  be  released  without  further 
trouble.  They  have  only  done  what  Brownlow,  John- 
son, Nelson,  Maynard,  Fleming,  Trigg,  and  others,  who 
were  leaders  in  trying  to  ruin  the  country,  told  them  to 
do.  And  now  why  keep  any  others  in  custody?  Why 
weary  the  troops  in  hunting  them  out  and  bringing 
them  to  justice  ?  Justice  should  be  meted  out  to  all 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  315 

alike ;  and  if  the  principal  leader  is  not  only  released, 
but  furnished  a  safe  escort,  it  should  so  be  exercised  to 
others.  We  should  invite  Johnson  and  Maynard  home, 
and  promise  them  safety  while  they  may  be  disposed  to 
remain  among  us  and  learn  all  the  details  of  the  South- 
ern movement. 

"  The  brave  men  who  see  that  Brownlow  gets  safely 
out  could  certainly  see  that  Johnson  and  Maynard  came 
safely  in ! 

"  But,  seriously,  we  have  no  desire  to  see  any  man — 
not  even  Mr.  Brownlow — pull  Tennessee  hemp,  or  that 
of  Missouri,  nor  yet  that  of  Kentucky.  But  we  do 
think  that  the  least  punishment  that  should  be  inflicted 
ought  to  be  a  residence  at  Tuscaloosa  until  the  war 
closes,  and  then  the  enviable  gentleman  can  go  over  by 
himself  and  see  Abe  Lincoln,  and  abide  with  him  forever. 

"  Can  it  be  that  any  officer  or  soldier  will  be  pleased 
to  carry  out  such  a  tormentor  as  Brownlow, — conduct 
him  safely  out  who  has  all  the  time  been  seeking  the 
ruin  of  every  Secessionist  and  the  whole  Southern  Con- 
federacy,— who  would  '  rather  be  in  heM  than  with  such 
a  bogus  Government'  ?  Can  it  be  that  those  brave  men 
who  have  left  all  that  is  dear  to  them  to  defend  the 
country  will  feel  themselves  honored  by  safely  conveying 
their  most  inveterate  enemy  over  to  Lincoln  to  do  them 
still  more  damage  ?  or  will  they  not  rather  feel  like  they 
have  lost  more  than  half  they  have  been  fighting  for  in 
this  State  ?  East  Tennessee  has  been  a  heavy  expense 
to  the  State  and  to  the  Confederate  Government,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  teaching  and  leading  of  Brownlow  and 
others ;  and  now  to  let  him  go  in  peace  seems  to  be  the 
height  of  folly,  or  we  cannot  see  right.  It  will  cool  the 
ardor  of  many  a  soldier,  and  cause  the  community  to 
lose  confidence  in  the  hope  they  entertained  of  the  speedy 
independence  of  the  South. 

"We  have  nothing  to  controvert  with  those  at  the 
helm  of  affairs,  but  we  think  we  can  safely  say  that  our 
friends  at  Nashville  and  Richmond  have  been  led  astray 


316  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

and  badly  hoodwinked  by  those  from  East  Tennessee, 
who  are  better  friends  to  Unionism  or  Toryism  than  to 
the  Southern  interests. 

"  It  has  been  said  in  the  ears  of  authority  that 
Brownlow  was  so  secreted  that  he  could  not  be  found. 
But  no  true  Southern  man  believes  a  word  of  that  in 
this  part  of  the  country.  He  could  have  been  picked 
up  in  three  days,  at  any  time  during  his  absence,  by  a 
deputation  of  ten  soldiers.  The  only  wonder  is  that  it 
was  not  done. 

"  It  may  be  well  said  that  enemies  with  fair  faces 
have  dictated,  and  have  been  heard  and  listened  to, 
instead  of  those  who  have  been  faithful  to  the  cause  of 
the  South  through  thick  and  thin. 

"  The  enmity  and  trouble  amongst  Union  men  in 
East  Tennessee  is  not  rooted  out :  it  is  only  covered  up ; 
while  the  heat,  with  some  honorable  exceptions,  is 
increasing,  and  waiting  and  hoping  for  Lincoln  to  send 
over  his  army,  and  they  will  '  pitch  in.'  " 

Saturday,  Dec.  14. — Three  more  prisoners  from  the 
upper  counties  were  brought  in  to-day.  They  speak 
of  the  outrages  perpetrated  by  these  Eebel  troops,  and 
of  their  murderous  spirit.  Three  officers  visited  me  to- 
day. Lieutenant-Colonel  Golladay  stated  to  me  that, 
whilst  he  was  not  informed  as  to  what  they  would  do 
with  me,  he  was  in  favor  of  sending  me  to  Nashville, 
boarding  me  at  a  hotel,  giving  me  the  privileges  of  the 
city  until  the  war  was  over,  but  confining  me  to  its  limits. 
I  told  him  that  his  mode  of  punishment  was  not  severe, 
but  that  I  preferred  his  Government  should  carry  out  its 
stipulations  with  me  and  send  me  beyond  their  limits. 

General  Carroll  visited  me,  but  was,  as  I  supposed, 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  317 

more  drunk  than  usual.  He  thought  that  I  ought  to 
be  out  of  this,  but  that  I  ought  to  be  willing  to  swear 
allegiance  to  the  Confederate  Government.  I  told  him 
that  I  would  lie  here  until  I  died  with  old  age  before  I 
would  take  such  an  oath.  I  did  not  consider  that  he 
had  a  Government;  I  regarded  it  as  a  big  Southern 
mob.  It  had  never  been  recognized  by  any  Govern- 
ment on  earth,  and  never  would  be ! 

Sunday,  Dec.  15. — Started  thirty-five  of  our  lot  to 
Tuscaloosa,  to  be  held  during  the  war.  Levi  Trewhitt, 
an  able  lawyer,  but  an  old  man,  will  never  get  back. 
His  sons  came  up  to  see  him,  but  were  refused  the  privi- 
lege. Dr.  Hunt,  from  the  same  county  of  Bradley,  has 
also  gone.  His  wife  came  sixty  miles  to  see  him,  and 
came  to  the  jail-door,  but  was  refused  admittance.  Dr. 
Hunt's  offence  is  twofold.  First,  his  wife  is  my  wife's 
only  sister;  and,  next,  he  holds  the  clerkship  of  the 
Chancery  Court,  and  Tom  Campbell,  the  judge-advocate 
on  the  court-martial,  has  a  brother-in-law  whom  lie 
desires  to  put  in  the  office.  I  have  told  the  doctor  that 
as  soon  as  his  office  could  be  declared  vacant  he  would 
be  turned  out,  and  McMillan,  the  brother-in-law  of 
Campbell,  put  in  his  place.* 


*  Trewhitt  has  since  died,  Hunt  has  been  turned  out,  and  McMillan 
appointed  Clerk  of  the  Chancery  Court !  Campbell  has  been  ordered 
to  go  to  his  command ;  but,  not  having  joined  to  fight,  he  refused,  and 
resigned.  His  resignation  was  not  accepted,  and  he  was  driven  out  of 
camps  in  Middle  Tennessee. 


318  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Monday,  Dec.  16. — Brought  in  Dr.  Wells  and  Colonel 
Morris,  of  Knox  county,  two  clever  men  and  good  citi- 
zens. Their  offence  is  that  they  are  Union  men,  first ; 
and,  next,  as  old  Whigs,  they  voted  and  electioneered 
against  this  scoundrel  Ramsey,  the  Confederate  At- 
torney, when  he  was  beaten  for  the  United  States  Con- 
gress, about  two  years  ago.  He  now  has  a  chance  of 
paying  these  gentlemen  back ! 

I  have  this  day  mailed  the  following  letter  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  at  Eichmond : — 

KNOXVILLE  JAIL,  Dec.  16,  1861. 

HON.  J.  P.  BENJAMIN: — 

You  authorized  General  Crittenden  to  give  me  pass- 
ports and  an  escort  to  send  me  into  the  old  Government, 
and  he  invited  me  here  for  that  purpose ;  but  a  third- 
rate  county-court  lawyer,  acting  as  your  Confederate 
attorney,  took  me  out  of  his  hands  and  cast  me  into  this 
prison.  I  am  anxious  to  learn  which  is  your  highest 
authority, — the  Secretary  of  War,  a  major-general,  or 
a  dirty  little  drunken  attorney  such  as  J.  C.  Ramsey  is ! 

You  are  reported  to  have  said  to  a  gentleman  in  Eich- 
mond that  I  am  a  bad  man,  dangerous  to  the  Confede- 
racy, and  that  you  desire  me  out  of  it.  Just  give  me 
my  passports,  and  I  will  do  for  your  Confederacy  more 
than  the  devil  has  ever  done, — I  will  quit  the  country ! 

I  am,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


/>/*•  /JW 


J&ASJ-U&Z 


oJwtA  4t£ZU^ 


M 


f.  g. 


IA/ 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  319 

Tuesday,  Dec.  17. — Brought  in  a  Union  man  from 
Campbell  county  to-day,  leaving  behind  six  small  chil- 
dren, and  their  mother  dead.  This  man's  offence  is 
holding  out  for  the  Union ! 

Two  more  carts  drove  up  with  coffins  in  them  and  a 
heavy  military  guard  around  them.  This  produced  in 
our  circle  of  prisoners  great  consternation,  for  we  did 
not  know  certainly  who  were  to  hang.  They,  however, 
came  into  the  jail  and  marched  out  Jacob  Harmon  and 
his  son  Henry,  and  hung  them  up  on  the  same  gallows ! 
The  old  man  was  a  man  of  property,  quite  old  and 
infirm,  and  they  compelled  him  to  sit  on  the  scaffold 
and  see  his  son,  a  young  man,  hang  first ;  then  he  was 
ordered  up  and  hung  by  his  side.  They  were  charged 
with  bridge-burning,  but  protested  to  the  last  that  they 
were  not  guilty.  I  know  not  how  this  was;  but  the 
laws  of  Tennessee  only  send  a  man  to  the  penitentiary 
for  such  offences. 

To-night,  two  brothers — named  Walker — came  in 
from  Hawkins  county,  charged  with  having  "talked 
Union  talk." 

Wednesday,  Dec.  18. — Discharged  sixty  prisoners  to- 
day, who  had  been  in  prison  from  three  to  five  weeks, — 
taken  through  mistake,  as  was  said,  there  being  nothing 
against  them.  Business  suffering  at  home,  unlawfully 
seized  upon  and  thrust  into  this  uncomfortable  jail,  they 
are  now  turned  out  by  the  corrupt,  wicked,  God-defying, 


320  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

and  hell-deserving  authorities  of  this  usurped,  bogus, 
and  truly  infamous  Confederacy.  We  are  getting  our 
number  reduced,  but  these  devils  will  replenish  our 
prison  as  long  as  they  can  find  Union  men  in  East  Ten- 
nessee ;  and  that  will  be  until  they  kill  them  all  off ! 

Thursday,  Dec.  19. — I  have  now  only  been  fourteen 
days  in  this  Union  Hall,  but  I  am  feeling  the  effects 
of  the  cold  nights  and  confinement.  My  old  disease. 
bronchitis,  is  troubling  me.  So  well  am  I  satisfied  ol 
the  inflammation  of  the  bronchi,  or  ramifications  of 
the  windpipe,  that  I  have  called  in  a  physician  and 
had  him  insert  a  silk  cord  in  my  breast  just  below  the 
chin,  so  as  to  bring  the  inflammation  to  the  surface. 

To-night  twelve  more  Union  prisoners  were  brought 
in  from  lower  East  Tennessee,  charged  with  belonging  to 
Colonel  Cliffs  regiment  of  Union  men,  arming  and  drill- 
ing to  go  over  to  Kentucky  and  join  the  Federal  army. 

Friday,  Dec.  20. — General  Carroll,  hearing  of  my 
indisposition,  came  in  to-day  and  offered  to  remove  me 
to  their  dirty  hospital.  I  declined  the  offer, — did  not 
want  passports  to  where  I  would  likely  be  poisoned  in 
twenty-four  hours.  I  told  him  I  was  ready  to  receive 
passports  to  go  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Confederacy. 
If  these  could  not  be  had,  I  desired  to  remain  where  I 
was.  This  is  a  terrible  night !  The  sentinels  are  all 
drunk, — howling  like  wolves, — rushing  to  our  windows 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  32] 

with  the  ferocity  of  the  Sepoys  of  India,  and  daring 
prisoners  to  show  their  heads, — cocking  their  guns  and 
firing  off  three  of  them  into  the  jail,  and  pretending  it 
was  accidental.  Merciful  God !  how  long  are  we  to  be 
treated  after  this  fashion  ? 

Saturday,  Dec.  21. — Took  out  five  of  the  prisoners 
brought  here  from  the  Clift  expedition, — liberated  them 
by  their  agreeing  to  go  into  the  Rebel  army.  Their 
dread  of  Tuscaloosa  induced  them  to  go  into  the  service. 
They  have  offered  this  chance  to  all,  and  only  sent  off 
those  who  stubbornly  refused. 

The  troops  in  town  are  on  a  general  spree,  for  as 
many  as  twenty-five  of  them  have  been  thrust  into 
prison  with  us.  I  suspect  they  are  made  drunk  and 
put  into  jail  to  get  up  a  row  with  the  Union  prisoners. 
They  are  yelling  all  night  like  savages, — some  cursing 
Lincoln  and  the  Union  men,  some  cursing  Davis  and 
his  Confederacy,  and  all  swearing  that  they  are  sick 
of  the  war.  I  write  this  at  midnight. 

To-day  I  succeeded  in  having  mailed  to  Nashville 
the  following  letter,  written  yesterday,  which  I  feel 
confident  the  Patriot  will  do  me  the  justice  to  publish : — 

KNOXVILLE  JAIL,  Dec.  20,  1861. 

EDITORS  OF  THE  NASHVILLE  PATRIOT  : — 

In  your  issue  of  the  17th  instant  you  say,  "We 
learn  that  W.  G.  Brownlow,  imprisoned  at  Knoxville, 


322  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

refuses  to  eat  any  thing,  desiring  to  starve  himself  to 
death" 

I  have  no  doubt,  Mr.  Editor,  that  you  have  learned 
such  a  thing,  but  it  is  wonderful  intelligence  !  And,  but 
for  the  fact  that  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as 
trying  to  commit  suicide,  I  would  not  care  to  correct 
the  erroneous  statement.  The  truth  in  my  case  is,  that 
I  have  now  been  in  jail  two  weeks,  and  I  have  eaten 
too  much  every  day,  my  family,  with  the  permission  of 
Brigadier-General  Carroll,  furnishing  me  with  three 
meals  each  day.  But  for  taking  cold,  and  suffering 
from  a  sore  throat,  I  could  boast  of  usual  health.  As 
it  is,  I  claim  to  be  the  most  cheerful  of  more  than  one 
hundred  prisoners  I  found  here  on  my  arrival. 

But,  sir,  I  will  now  give  you  an  additional  item  or 
so,  which  many  of  your  readers  will  peruse  with  inte- 
rest if  you  are  allowed  to  publish  them.  I  left  home 
about  the  5th  of  November,  with  a  view  to  collect  some 
claims  due  my  office  for  advertising,  and  to  relieve 
the  fears  of  my  family,  who  were  daily  annoyed  with 
drunken  soldiers,  calling  before  my  house  and  flourish- 
ing their  side-knives  and  pistols  and  making  threats 
of  violence.  The  last  week  in  November  I  received 
a  letter  from  Brigadier- General  Carroll,  inviting  me 
to  return  and  promising  me  protection  from  personal 
violence.  On  the  5th  of  December  I  received  a  brief 
letter  from  Major-General  Crittenden,  inviting  me  to 
his  head-quarters  in  Knoxville,  promising  me  passports 


AMONG    THE    REBELS.  323 

into  Kentucky  and  a  military  escort  to  conduct  me 
safe.  At  the  same  time  I  was  furnished  with  the  copy 
of  a  letter  to  the  major-general  from  J.  P.  Benjamin, 
Secretary  of  War,  advising  him  to  give  me  passports 
and  a  safe-conduct  beyond  the  Confederate  lines. 

Supposing  the  head  of  the  War  Department  and  the 
major-general  commanding  here  to  be  acting  in  good 
faith,  I  reported  myself  in  person  and  accepted  the  offer 
of  passports.  I  agreed  to  start  on  Saturday,  and  the 
general  designated  Captain  Gillespie's  company  of 
cavalry  for  an  escort. 

But  on  Friday  evening,  just  before  sundown,  I  was 
arrested  for  treason,  founded  on  certain  editorials  in 
the  Knoxville  Whig  since  June  last,  the  warrant  being 
signed  by  Commissioner  Reynolds  and  Attorney  Eam- 
sey.  I  am,  therefore,  in  jail, — in  close  confinement, — 
perfectly  contented,  and  making  no  complaints  against 
any  one.  I  am  waiting  patiently  to  see  which  is  the 
highest  power, — the  War  Department  at  Kichmond  asso- 
ciated with  the  major-general  in  command  here,  or  the 
Commissioners'  Court  for  Knoxville.  Nay,  I  am  anxious 
to  know  whether  the  high  authorities  inviting  me  here 
were  acting  in  good  faith,  or  were  only  playing  off  a-  trick 
to  have  me  incarcerated.  I  am  not  willing  to  believe 
that  the  representatives  of  a  would-be  great  Government 
struggling  for  its  independence,  and  having  in  charge 
the  interests  of  twelve  millions  of  people,  intend  to  act 
in  bad  faith  to  me.  The  chivalrous  people  of  the  South, 


324  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

and  all  the  journals,  have  denounced  the  high-handed 
measures  of  the  United  States  Government  in  suspend- 
ing the  habeas  corpus  act,  suppressing  public  journals, 
and  incarcerating  citizens  upon  lettres  de  cachet ;  and 
I  will  not  allow  myself  to  believe  that  the  Confederate 
Government  will  resort  to  similar  tricks. 
I  am,  sir,  very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

Sunday,  Dec.  22. — Brought  in  old  man  "Wamplar, 
an  old  Dutchman  seventy  years  of  age,  from  Greene 
county,  charged  with  being  an  Andy  Johnson  man, 
and  "  talking  Union  talk."  Sentinels  are  stationed  in  our 

rooms  to  watch  us, — cursing  us  all  for  d d  thieves, 

Tories,  and  scoundrels,  to  even  guard  whom  is  a  dis- 
grace, they  allege.  One  of  them  carried  the  matter  so  far 
that  one  of  our  prisoners,  Tucker,  pitched  into  him  and 
flogged  him  without  arms,  and  in  defiance  of  his  musket. 

Monday,  Dec.  23. — Officer  of  the  day  in  charge  of 
the  sentinels,  furnished  liquor  to  a  portion  of  the 
prisoners,  such  as  came  out  of  the  ranks  of  Secession. 
They  got  drunk.  A  general  row  was  threatened.  Union 
prisoners  and  Kebel  sentinels  played  cards,  and  the 
former  won  the  money. 

Tuesday,  Dec.  24. — White's  regiment,  some  of  whom 
have  been  guarding  us,  left  to-day  for  Kentucky  to 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  325 

join  Zollicoffer's  army.  Many  of  them  seemed  to  regret 
it, — told  our  prisoners  that  they  felt  like  going  to  their 
graves.  Officer  of  the  day  came  into  the  jail  and 
demanded  all  the  cards.  They  were  handed  over  to 
him,  and  he  burned  them.  We  have  but  three  men 
who  play  cards.  To-night  they  brought  in  one  of  their 
"  Texas  Eangers,"  who  had  deserted  from  Manassas. 
He  looks  but  little  like  killing  Yankees.  Various 
troops  put  in  jail  during  the  day  for  drunkenness. 

Wednesday,  Dec.  25. — The  Union  ladies  in  and  around 
Knoxville  applied  to  General  Carroll  for  leave  to  send 
in  a  Christmas  dinner.  He  granted  leave,  and  stated 
that  he  regarded  it  as  an  act  of  humanity.  The  supply 
was  abundant  and  sumptuous,  and  was  most  thankfully 
received. 

It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  know  that  I  have 
been  able,  out  of  my  basket  of  provisions  and  coffee-pot, 
to  furnish  several  very  old  men,  and  very  sick,  who 
could  not  eat  what  comes  from  the  greasy  inn.  Two  of 
them  are  Baptist  ministers,  Messrs.  Pope  and  Gate,  each 
as  much  as,  or  more  than,  seventy  years  of  age.  The 
first-named  was  sent  here  for  praying,  in  his  pulpit,  for 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  The  latter  is  here 
for  cheering  the  Stars  and  Stripes  as  the  banner  neared 
his  house,  borne  by  some  men  on  horseback. 

Thursday,  Dec.  26. — Some  twelve  Confederate  troops, 


326  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

beastly  drunk,  have  to-day  been  confined  in  our  jail  for 
outraging  all  the  decencies  of  life.  They  make  our 
jail  a  hell  on  earth.  What  an  affliction  it  is  to  be 
cursed  with  confinement  in  such  a  place  and  with  such 
brutes  as  these  are !  I  am  sick,  without  an  appetite, 
and  I  fear  I  am  taking  the  fever.  Several  of  our  men 
are  now  sick,  stretched  out  upon  the  floor ;  and  some  of 
them,  I  have  reason  to  believe,  will  never  survive  this 
confinement. 

Friday,  Dec.  27. — Harrison  Self,  an  industrious, 
honest,  and  heretofore  peaceable  man,  a  citizen  of 
Greene  county,  was  notified  this  morning  that  he  was  to 
be  hanged  at  four  o'clock  P.M.  His  daughter,  a  noble 
girl,  modest,  and  neatly  attired,  came  in  this  morning  to 
see  him.  Heart-broken  and  bowed  down  under  a  fearful 
weight  of  sorrow,  she  entered  his  iron  cage,  and  they 
embraced  each  other  most  affectionately.  My  God, 
what  a  sight !  What  an  affecting  scene  !  May  these 
eyes  of  mine,  bathed  in  tears,  never  look  upon  the  like 
again !  The  weeping  of  prisoners  who  beheld  this 
scene  brings  to  my  mind  the  verses  I  subjoin  • — 

"  Did  Christ  o'er  sinners  weep  ? 

And  shall  our  cheeks  be  dry? 
Let  floods  of  penitential  grief 
Burst  forth  from  every  eye. 

"  The  Son  of  God  in  tears, 

Angels  with  wonder  see! 
Be  thou  astonished,  0  my  soul  : 
He  shed  those  tears  for  thee." 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  327 

But  her  short  limit  to  remain  with  her  father  expired, 
and  she  came  out  weeping  bitterly,  and  shedding  burn- 
ing tears.  Bequesting  me  to  write  a  dispatch  for  her 
and  sign  her  name  to  it,  I  took  out  my  pencil  and  a 
slip  of  paper,  and  wrote  the  following : — 

"KNOXVILLE,  Dec.  27,  1861. 

"  HON.  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  : — 

"My  father,  Harrison  Self,  is  sentenced  to  hang  at 
four  o'clock  this  evening,  on  a  charge  of  bridge-burn- 
ing. As  he  remains  my  earthly  all,  and  all  my  hopes 
of  happiness  centre  in  him,  I  implore  you  to  pardon 
him.  ELIZABETH  SELF." 

"With  this  dispatch  the  poor  girl  hurried  off  to  the 
office,  some  two  or  three  hundred  yards  from  the  jail ; 
and  about  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  answer  came 
to  General  Carroll,  telling  him  not  to  allow  Self  to  be 
hung.  Self  was  turned  out  of  the  cage  into  the  jail  with 
the  rest  of  us,  and  looks  as  if  lie  had  gone  through  a 
long  spell  of  sickness.  'But  what  a  thrill  of  joy  ran 
through  the  heart  of  that  noble  girl !  Self  is  to  be 
confined,  as  I  understand,  during  the  war.  This  is 
hard  upon  an  innocent  man;  but  it  is  preferable  to 
hanging. 

Self  stated  that  when  he  expected  to  hang,  and  only 
a  few  hours  before  Davis's  dispatch  came,  the  marshal 
and  jailer,  Fox,  told  him  that  he  was  authorized  to  say 

28* 


328  BROWE LOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

to  him  that  if  he  would  confess  his  guilt  as  a  bridge- 
burner,  under  the  gallows,  and  would  state  that 
BROWNLOW,  TRIGG,  BAXTER,  and  TEMPLE  had  put  him 
up  to  it  and  furnished  money  to  burn  the  bridges,  he 
would  be  reprieved !  He  replied  to  the  wicked,  ma- 
licious, and  infernal  offer  that  he  could  not  say  so,  as 
it  would  not  be  true.  What  an  effort  to  involve  inno- 
cent men !  And  what  a  temptation  to  the  man  about 
to  hang !  The  men  who  authorized  this  bribe  de- 
serve the  lowest  and  hottest  apartments  in  the  infernal 
regions. 

Upon  the  jail-floor,  in  one  corner,  lies  Madison  Gate, 
low  with  fever,  and  upon  a  bit  of  old  carpeting,  with 
some  sort  of  bundle  under  his  aching  head  to  serve  as 
a  pillow.  I  feel  confident  that  he  will  die.  Poor 
fellow !  He  is  an  honest  man, — a  man  who  stays  at 
home  and  attends  to  his  own  business.  He  has  a  little 
farm  in  Sevier  county,  a  wife  and  six  small  and  help- 
less children,  and  is  here  for  being  a  Union  man  and 
mustering  with  a  company  of  Union  Guards.  This  is 
the  head  and  front  of  his  offending. 

We  have  all  just  witnessed  a  thrilling  scene.  The 
wife  of  poor  Gate  came  and  presented  herself  in  front 
of  the  jail,  neatly  attired,  with  an  infant  at  her  breast, 
of  five  or  six  weeks  old, — born,  I  think,  since  her  hus- 
band's confinement !  She  asked  leave  to  see  her  dying 
husband,  but  was  refused  at  the  door,  by  some  one 
claiming  to  act  upon  authority.  I  put  my  head  out 


AMONG    THE    REBELS.  329 

of  the  window  and  remonstrated,  telling  them  that 
it  was  a  sin  and  a  shame  to  refuse  this  poor  woman, 
after  coming  so  far,  the  liberty  of  seeing  her  husband, 
and  seeing  him  for  the  last  time !  They  allowed  her 
to  enter,  but  limited  her  stay  to  twenty  minutes. 
She  came  in.  And,  oh,  my  soul !  what  a  scene  !  Seeing 
the  emaciated  form  of  her  husband  on  the  floor,  pining 
with  sorrow  and  severe  affliction,  and  destitute  of  every 
comfort,  she  approached  with  faltering  step,  and  sanV 
down  upon  his  heaving  breast,  bathed  in  tears  of  anguish. 
I  asked  her  to  give  me  the  babe  as  she  ventured  up ; 
for  I  saw  that  she  was  unconscious  of  having  it  in 
her  arms.  In  that  condition,  without  a  word,  they 
remained  until  her  twenty  minutes  expired,  of  which 
being  notified,  she  rose  up  and  retired.  I  hope  I  may 
never  look  upon  such  a  scene  again.  Oh,  what  oppres- 
sion I  And  yet  this  is  the  spirit  of  Secession !  I  find 
some  consolation  in  the  following  verses : — 

"  Oppression  shall  not  always  reign : 

There  dawns  a  brighter  day, 
When  freedom,  burst  from  every  chain, 
Shall  have  triumphant  sway. 

"  Then  right  shall  over  might  prevail, 
And  truth,  like  hero  armed  in  mail, 
The  hosts  of  tyrant  wrong  assail, 
And  hold  eternal  sway !" 


330  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  XXL 

THE  outside  pressure  against  me  I  knew  was  very 
great,  and  the  clamor  for  my  blood,  or  rather  for  my 
neck,  was  to  be  heard  among  the  Secession  citizens  on 
the  street,  and  among  the  infuriated  troops  in  camp 
and  in  the  liquor-shops  of  the  town.  I  really  sup- 
posed, at  one  time,  that  they  would  hang  me,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  meet  the  occasion  like  a  man.  In 
view  of  this  fate,  I  sketched  off  a  brief  speech,  which 
I  intended  to  ask  the  privilege  of  delivering  on  the 
scaffold.  I  think  they  would  have  granted  the  re- 
quest, from  an  intense  curiosity  to  hear  what  I  had  to 
say  in  such  a  trying  moment ;  and  I  believe  I  could 
have  stood  forth  and  said  it  in  the  face  of  ten  thou- 
sand people.  I  give  the  speech  just  as  I  prepared 
it  in  pencil-writing,  at  intervals,  in  prison.  I  began 
writing  it  when  they  commenced  hanging  our  pri- 
soners : — 

Intended  Speech  under  the  Gallows, 
FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN  : — I    have    often    addressed 
many  of  you,  upon  different  topics,  but  never  under  cir- 
cumstances like  those  which  now  surround  me,  as  I  feel 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  331 

that  I  am  speaking  for  the  last  time.  I  suppose  I 
have  been  sentenced  to  hang  by  a  court-martial  sitting 
in  this  city :  I  say  I  suppose  so,  for  I  have  never  had  any 
trial,  or  even  a  notice  of  a  trial  being  in  progress.  So 
it  has  been  with  those  who  have  been  executed  before 
me.  It  is  alike  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  I 
was  tried  by  that  court-martial  in  my  absence  and  in 
the  absence  of  witnesses  and  counsel,  or  whether  I  had 
been  present ;  the  result  would  have  been  death.  The 
judge  advocate,  THOMAS  J.  CAMPBELL,  is  a  perfidious 
man,  as  destitute  of  real  honor  and  purity  of  purpose 
as  he  is  of  true  courage  and  manly  virtue.  Associated 
with  him  is  JAMES  D.  THOMAS,  a  man  who  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  Methodist  ministry  for  whipping  his 
wife  and  slandering  his  venerable  old  father-in-law ! 
This  man  Thomas  has  advocated  on  the  bench,  in 
open  court-martial,  the  sending  of  the  Union  masses  of 
East  Tennessee  to  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and  work- 
ing them  in  the  field,  under  negro  overseers,  and  the 
hanging  of  the  Union  leaders  here !  Justice  at  the 
hands  of  such  a  set  of  men  is  the  last  thing  I  would 
expect.  Indeed,  there  is  more  glory  in  being  put  to 
death  by  such  men  than  in  being  acquitted,  after  going 
through  the  forms  of  a  trial. 

It  is  known  to  many  of  you  that  I  had  left  home  to 
avoid  personal  violence,  and  was  out  of  the  reach  of 
the  mob,  who  could  not  find  me,  after  repeated  efforts 
by  squads  sent  out,  armed,  by  that  arch-hypocrite  and 


332  BROWNLOW'S    EXPEEIENCES 

wouid-be  murderer,  W.  B.  Wood,  of  Alabama.  In  my 
concealment  I  was  informed  by  a  letter  from  Major- 
General  Crittenden,  in  command  at  this  place,  that  he 
was  instructed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  at  Richmond. 
Mr.  Benjamin,  to  give  me  passports  and  a  military 
escort  to  conduct  me  out  of  this  bogus  Government 
into  the  Federal  Government;  and  I  was  invited  to 
appear  at  his  head-quarters  in  twenty-four  hours, 
where  he  promised  me  that  I  should  be  furnished 
with  said  passports.  I  was  there  within  the  time 
specified,  accompanied  by  Colonel  Baxter,  the  arrange- 
ment was  made,  and  the  company  of  Captain  Gilles- 
pie  designated  as  my  escort.  But  that  evening, 
just  before  sundown,  I  was  arrested  upon  a  warrant 
issued  by  that  disgraceful  specimen  of  our  nature, 
Commissioner  Reynolds,  upon  the  false  oath  of  At- 
torney Ramsey,  a  corrupt  man,  for  whom  no  decent 
Secessionist  entertains  any  respect.  The  charge  against 
me  was  treason,  founded  upon  editorials,  one  of  which 
has  been  published,  in  part,  by  Ramsey,  in  the  Knox- 
ville  Register;  and  although  the  miserable  man  swore 
that  the  editorial  was  published  since  the  10th  of  June, 
at  which  time  the  State  voted  out,  my  files  will  show 
that  it  was  published  on  the  25th  of  May. 

Thus  I  was  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  a  major-general 
and  of  his  Secretary  of  War  by  a  worthless. little  Con- 
federate lawyer,  and  thrown  into  the  common  jail  of 
this  county;  refused  bail,  when  the  best  the  county 


AMONG    THE    REBELS.  333 

affords  was  offered;  and,  up  to  this  eventful  hour,  I 
have  been  denied  a  trial,  and  an  opportunity  to  defend 
myself  before  the  court  condemning  me  to  an  igno- 
minious death.  The  proof  of  all  that  is  here  charged 
will  be  found  in  the  correspondence  cited,  which  I  have 
placed  in  the  hands  of  a  friend  for  publication.  It 
will  show  that  these  parties,  one  and  all,  have  acted  a 
treacherous  part  towards  me,  and  have  violated  their 
pledges  and  faith.  Their  perfidy  and  treachery  are 
absolutely  disgraceful  to  their  bogus  Government,  ii 
indeed  such  a  Government  can  be  disgraced. 

Some  hostile  reminiscences  of  the  past,  as  between 
other  cowardly,  mean,  and  murderous  men  of  this  city 
and  myself,  will  appear  in  the  documents  I  leave  behind ; 
and  I  request  my  sons  to  publish  them,  even  at  the 
cost  of  their  lives.  I  desire  to  bear  my  testimony, 
even  in  a  dying  hour,  to  the  perfidy,  double-dealing, 
and  cowardly  course  toward  me  of  that  prince  of  hypo- 
crites and  great  embodiment  of  human  deceit,  Camp- 
bell Wallace,  the  president  of  the  railroad,  and  one 
of  the  great  lights  of  Secession.  I  warn  all  men 
present,  and  all  who  may  hear  of  this  statement, 
never  to  confide  in  that  man.  He  is  supremely  self- 
ish, notoriously  insincere,  and  would  sell  his  interest  in 
his  God — which,  I  fear,  is  not  a  very  large  one — for 
money ! 

I  must  also  bear  witness  to  the  treachery  and  insin- 
cerity of  William  G.  MacAdoo,  who,  while  meeting 


334  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

me  with  a  smile  and  professing  friendship,  stated  to 
John  Black  that  I  ought  to  be  kept  in  prison  during 
this  war.  This  man  was  on  the  verge  of  starvation, 
and  without  credit,  when  I  took  it  upon  myself  to 
attend  the  sitting  of  our  Legislature,  some  years  ago, 
and  help  make  him  District  Attorney.  He  since  lost 
one  wife  and  married  a  second  owning  a  gang  of 
negroes  and  a  rice-plantation  in  Georgia,  and  has 
turned  over  to  Secession.  I  warn  my  family  and 
friends  never  to  confide  in  him. 

Fellow-countrymen,  I  am  shortly  to  be  executed, — 
aot  for  any  crime  punishable  with  death,  but  for  my 
devotion  to  my  country,  her  laws  and  Constitution.  1 
die  for  refusing  to  espouse  the  cause  of  this  wicked  re- 
bellion ;  and  I  glory  in  it,  strange  as  you  may  think  it. 
I  could  have  lived,  if  I  had  taken  an  oath  of  allegiance 
to  this  so-called  Confederacy.  Bather  than  stultify 
myself  and  disgrace  my  family  by  such  an  oath,  I  agree 
to  die !  I  never  could  sanction  this  Government,  and 
I  trust  that  no  child  of  mine  will  ever  do  it.  Look 
at  the  past  history  of  the  leaders  and  originators  of 
this  rebellion.  There  is  not  a  man  of  unstained  cha- 
racter to  be  found  among  them.  Yancey  is  a  con- 
victed murderer,  who  killed  his  uncle,  (Dr.  Earl,  of 
South  Carolina,)  and,  instead  of  going  to  England  to 
intrigue  against  this  Government,  he  would  have  been 
in  prison  had  he  not  been  pardoned  by  the  Governor 
of  that  State.  Wigfall,  a  Confederate  Senator  and  a 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  335 

general,  fled  from  his  native  State  of  South  Carolina 
to  Texas  to  escape  the  horrors  of  assassination,  became 
a  collecting  attorney  for  large  amounts,  and  then  swin- 
dled his  employers  out  of  their  dues,  murdering  as 
many  as  two  men  in  Texas.  Floyd,  while  Governor 
of  my  native  State,  was  guilty  of  swindling  the  State 
out  of  some  thirty  thousand  dollars  of  the  Washington 
Monument  Fund  intrusted  to  his  care;  while  in  Bu- 
chanan's Cabinet,  in  violation  of  his  oath,  he  stole,  be- 
sides large  amounts  of  bonds,  the  guns,  forts,  and  am- 
munition of  the  Federal  Government,  to  aid  in  carrying 
on  this  infamous  rebellion.  Slidell,  another  intriguer, 
who  never  had  an  honest  emotion  of  soul  in  his  life, 
assisted,  while  in  the  United  States  Senate,  to  pass 
through  Congress  that  great  swindle  of  the  age,  the 
"  Houmans  Land  Grant," — a  swindle  so  gigantic  and  a 
cheat  so  enormous  that  the  next  Congress  revoked  the 
grant.  Benjamin,  your  Secretary  of  War,  and  one  of 
the  men  engaged  in  deceiving  me,  was  expelled  from  a 
New  England  college  for  stealing  money  and  jewelry 
out  of  the  trunks  of  his  fellow-students  :  he  afterwards 
got  into  the  Senate  from  Louisiana  by  turning  from  a 
Whig  to  a  Democrat,  and  became  the  partner  of  Slidell 
in  the  Houmans  swindle.  Thompson,  the  Mississippi 
member  of  Buchanan's  Cabinet,  while  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  was  a  partner  in  stealing  some  Indian  Trust 
Bonds,  and,  when  about  to  be  dismissed  for  the  offence, 
fled  from  the  Federal  capital  by  night,  to  avoid  a  prose- 

29 


336  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

cution.  Cobb,  the  Georgia  member  of  Buchanan's 
Cabinet,  speculated  in  stocks,  using  Government  money, 
and  was  detected  in  it;  and  all  this  was  at  a  time 
when  he  was  acting  under  oath,  as  the  head  of  the 
Treasury  Department.  Davis,  your  President,  after 
his  State  had  borrowed  millions,  led  the  way  in  the 
work  of  repudiation  and  in  defrauding  Mississippi's 
honest  creditors.  Toombs,  the  big  man  of  your  Gov- 
ernment at  Eichmond,  was  the  confederate  of  Keitt 
and  Brooks  in  their  attempt  to  assassinate  Sumner. 
Swan,  your  Congressman  from  this  district,  and  an 
original  Secessionist,  is  the  forger  of  the  Johnson  let- 
ters to  Lawrence,  with  a  view  to  swindle  the  latter 
out  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  These,  and  a  host  of 
others  like  them,  are  the  men  who  originated  and  are 
carrying  on  this  Southern  Eebellion.  Ought  not  any 
honest  man  to  prefer  to  hang  rather  than  act  with  such 
men  in  a  wicked  crusade  against  the  mild  sway  of  the 
best  Government  on  earth  ? 

But  I  must  close.  Solemn  thought!  I  die,  with 
confidence  that  the  United  States  Government  will 
crush  out  this  rebellion  during  the  coming  spring 
and  summer.  Mark  my  prediction !  I  would  like  to 
be  living  when  that  is  done;  but  I  must  resign  myself 
to  my  fate. 

I  have  a  word  to  say  as  it  regards  my  family.  I 
leave  a  wife  and  seven  children  to  the  mercies  of  a 
cold-hearted  world.  I  hope  the  Union  men  of  the 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  337 

country  will  be  kind  to  them,  and  seek  to  impress 
their  minds  with  what  is  true, — that  they  are  not 
disgraced,  but  honored,  by  my  death.  Let  me  be 
shrouded  in  the  sacred  folds  of  the  Star-Spangled 
Banner;  and  let  my  children's  children  know  that  the 
last  words  I  uttered  on  earth  were, — 

"  Forever  float  that  standard  sheet ! 

Where  breathes  the  foe  but  falls  before  us, 
With  Freedom's  soil  beneath  our  feet, 
And  Freedom's  banner  streaming  o'er  us !" 

January  1,  1862. — For  the  last  four  or  five  days  I 
have  been  very  sick,  and  I  am  now  salivated  from  an 
excess  of  mercury.  I  have,  therefore,  not  made  any 
note  of  what  has  passed.  Captain  Monserrat,  late  of 
Nashville,  is  in  charge  of  this  post  at  present;  and  I 
will  do  him  the  justice  to  say  that  he  has  treated  me 
and  my  family  with  great  kindness,  and  as  I  would 
expect  to  be  treated  -by  a  gentleman.  Upon  the  testi- 
mony of  Dr.  Hill,  one  of  my  family  physicans,  Captain 
Monserrat  has  had  me  brought  to  a  private  room,  on 
my  own  lot,  and  guarded  as  at  the  jail.  It  was  upon 
the  faith  of  this  certificate  that  I  was  removed : — 

"  KNOXVILLE,  TENNESSEE,  Monday,  Dec.  30,  '61. 

"  CAPTAIN  MONSERRAT  : — 

"  SIR  : — For  a  day  or  two  past  I  have  been  in  attend- 
ance upon  Mr.  Brownlow  at  the  jail,  and  have  much 
regretted  that  greater  quiet  could  not  be  secured  to 


338  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

him,  and  have  little  hopes  of  his  recovery  without  it ; 
injuries  of  his  skull,  received  years  since,  complicate 
his  sickness,  and  render  this  imperatively  necessary 
for  a  rapid  recovery. 

"  Very  respectfully,  &c. 

"0.  F.  HILL." 

Upon  learning  that  I  was  about  to  be  removed,  and 
upon  getting  a  letter  from  the  War  Department  to  the 
effect  that  I  ought  not  to  have  been  imprisoned,  the 
miscreant  Eamsey  went  into  court  and  ordered  my 
release  upon  the  civil  arrest;  but  an  officer  of  the 
army,  who  accompanied  the  notice  of  my  release  to 
my  bedside,  re-arrested  me  under  the  military  author- 
ity, and  placed  an  armed  guard  at  my  door. 

The  following  document  appeared  in  the  Register, 
and  shows  two  things, — that  the  villainous  attorney 
withheld  the  letter  of  Benjamin  for  a  week  after  re- 
ceiving it,  and  that  the  military  authorities  were  act- 
ing with  Keynolds  and  Eamsey  from  the  first.  The 
article  herewith  presented  is  from  the  Eichmond 
Dispatch : — 

Trial  of  Brownlow— His  Eelease— Letter  from  the  Secretary  of 

War, 

"  The  Knoxville  Register  of  Saturday  says  that  the 
cause  of  Parson  Brownlow,  arrested  for  the  publication 
of  incendiary  articles  against  the  Confederate  Govern- 
ment, was  called  up  in  court  on  last  Friday. 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  339 

"  The  Deputy  Marshal,  Fox,  having  been  ordered  to 
bring  from  jail  W.  G.  Brownlow,  reported  that  Brown- 
low  was  too  unwell,  as  he  represented  himself,  to  appear 
at  the  court-house.  Very  few  spectators  were  present. 
The  Commissioner  ordered  the  District  Attorney  to 
proceed ;  whereupon  the  District  Attorney  arose  and 
read  the  following  letter,  which  he  had  just  received 
from  Mr.  Benjamin,  Secretary  of  War  at  Eichmond: — 


"  CONFEDERATE  STATES  OP  AMERICA,         ) 
"WAR  DEPARTMENT,  RICHMOND,  Dec.  22,  1861.  J 

"  SIR: — Your  letters  of  the  17th  and  19th  inst.  have 
been  received.  In  relation  to  Brownlow's  case,  the  facts 
are  simply  these.  Brownlow,  being  concealed  some- 
where in  the  mountains,  made  application  to  General 
Crittenden  for  protection  against  what  he  called  a 
military  mob  or  military  tribunal,  if  he  came  to  Knox- 
ville,  professing  his  willingness  to  undergo  a  civil  trial, — 
i.e.  a  trial  before  the  civil  court,  as  distinguished  from 
court-martial ;  and,  as  I  understand,  General  Crittenden 
promised  to  protect  him  from  any  violence  and  from 
any  trial  before  a  military  tribunal. 

"In  the  mean  time  Mr.  Baxter  came  here,  and  repre- 
sented that  Brownlow,  who  was  entirely  beyond  our 
power  and  so  concealed  that  no  one  could  get  posses- 
sion of  his  person,  was  willing  to  leave  the  country  and 
go  into  exile,  to  avoid  any  further  trouble  in  East  Ten- 
nessee, and  proffered  that  Brownlow  would  come  in  and 
deliver  himself  up  to  be  conveyed  out  of  East  Tennes- 
see, if  the  Government  would  agree  to  let  him  do  so 
and  to  protect  him  in  his  exit. 

"  If  Brownlow  had  been  in  our  hands,  we  might  not 
have  accepted  this  proposition ;  but,  deeming  it  better 
to  have  him  as  an  open  enemy  on  the  other  side  of  the 
lines  than  as  a  secret  enemy  within  the  lines,  authority 
was  given  to  General  Crittenden  to  assure  him  of  pro- 
tection across  the  border  if  he  came  into  Knoxville. 

"  It  was  not  in  our  power,  nor  that  of  any  one  else,  to 

29* 


340  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

prevent  his  being  taken  by  process  of  law ;  and  I  con- 
fess it  did  not  occur  to  me  that  any  attempt  would  be 
made  to  take  him  out  of  the  hands  of  the  military 
authority.  This  has  been  done,  however,  and  it  is  only 
regretted  in  one  point  of  view, — that  is,  color  is  given 
to  the  suspicion  that  Brownlow  has  been  entrapped, 
and  has  given  himself  up  under  promise  of  protection 
which  has  not  been  firmly  kept.  General  Crittenden 
feels  sensitive  on  this  point ;  and  I  share  his  feeling. 
Better  that  any,  the  most  dangerous  enemy,  however 
criminal,  should  escape,  than  that  the  honor  and  good 
faith  of  the  Government  should  be  impugned  or  even 
suspected.  General  Crittenden  gave  his  word  only  that 
Brownlow  should  not  be  tried  by  the  court-martial,  and 

I  gave  authority  to  promise  him  protection  if  he  would 
surrender,  to  be  conveyed  across  the  border.    We  have 
both  kept  our  words  as  far  as  was  in  our  power;  but 
every  one  must  see  that  Brownlow  would  now  be  safe, 
and  at  large,  if  he  had  not  supposed  that  his  reliance 
on  the  promise  made  him  would  insure  his  safe  de- 
parture from  East  Tennessee. 

"  Under  all  the  circumstances,  therefore,  if  Brownlow 
is  exposed  to  harm  from  his  arrest,  I  shall  deem  the 
honor  of  the  Government  so  far  compromitted  as  to 
consider  it  my  duty  to  urge  on  the  President  a  pardon 
for  any  offence  of  which  he  may  be  found  guilty;  and  I 
repeat  the  expression  of  my  regret  that  he  was  prose- 
cuted, however  evident  may  be  his  guilt. 

"  J.  P.  BENJAMIN, 

"  Secretary  of  War. 

II  J.  C.  EAMSEY,  ESQ., 

"  C.S.  List.  Att'y,  Knoxville. 

"Upon  the  reading  of  the  foregoing  letter,  the  At- 
torney remarked  that  the  arrest  of  Brownlow  had  been 
made  after  consultation  with  the  military  authorities, 
who  had  given  assurances  that  if  Brownlow  should  be 
arrested  by  civil  process  the  military  would  in  no 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  341 

manner  interfere  in  his  behalf,  except  to  protect  him 
from  personal  violence;  that  this  arrest  had  been  made 
because  of  the  following  and  similar  articles  which  had 
been  published  in  Brownlow's  paper: — 

"  *  Let  the  railroads  on  which  Union  citizens  of  East 
Tennessee  are  conveyed  to  Montgomery  in  irons  be 
eternally  and  hopelessly  destroyed.  Let  the  property 
of  the  men  concerned  be  consumed,  and  let  their  lives 
pay  the  forfeit,  and  the  names  will  be  given!' 

"  District  Attorney  Ramsey  then  proceeded  to  say  that 
he  would  enter  a  nolle  prosequi  only  upon  the  ground 
that  the  good  faith  of  the  Confederate  States  Gov- 
ernment should  be  carried  out  in  this  case,  and  Brown- 
low  be  transported  beyond  our  lines.  This  he  did  that 
no  imputation  whatever  should  be  made  against  the 
authorities  at  Richmond  of  bad  faith,  no  matter  what 
might  be  the  circumstances  which  led  the  authorities 
to  such  a  conclusion.  For  himself,  he  believed  that 
Brownlow  could  have  been  arrested;  but  as  a  different 
impression  prevailed  at  Richmond,  and  the  authorities 
acted  upon  that,  from  the  information  they  had,  he 
could  not  do  otherwise  than  enter  a  nolle  prosequi. 

"Judge  Reynolds,  having  heard  the  letter  of  the 
Secretary  of  War,  remarked  that,  under  the  circum- 
stances, he  could  not  hesitate  as  to  the  discharge  of 
Brownlow,  and  so  ordered." 

It  is  not  true  that  I  made  application  to  General 
Crittenden ;  but  he  applied  to  me  to  come  in.  He  first 
sent  General  Cazwell  to  my  house,  to  ask  my  family  to 
send  me  word  to  come  in.  Although  General  Cazwell 
is  much  of  a  gentleman,  and  I  did  not  doubt  the  truth 
of  his  message,  yet  I  desired  to  have  the  request  from 
General  Crittenden  in  writing,  which  I  got,  and  which 
will  be  found  in  the  preceding  pages.  Colonel  Baxter's 


342  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

application  was  without  my  knowledge.  But  the  re- 
buke of  Kamsey  and  his  clique,  I  apprehend,  was  occa- 
sioned by  a  trip  to  Eichmond  by  General  Crittenden. 

And  although  I  was  instantly  re-arrested  by  the 
military  and  surrounded  by  a  strong  guard,  and  there 
kept  through  the  months  of  January  and  February, 
the  clique  raved  like  savages  to  think  that  I  should  be 
released  from  one  arrest,  and  taken  to  a  private  room, 
where  my  family  could  furnish  me  with  a  feather-bed. 
The  Register  brought  out  the  following,  no  doubt  the 
joint  production  of  the  civil  and  military  authorities: — 

"THE  RELEASE  OF  w.  G.  BROWNLOW. 
"  We  do  not  desire  to  be  understood  as  attaching  an 
undue  or  extravagant  importance  to  the  discharge  of 
Brownlow  from  the  custody  of  the  Confederate  author- 
ities. The  writer  of  this  has  known  this  individual 
for  years.  He  is,  in  few  words,  a  diplomat  of  the 
first  water.  Brownlow  rarely  undertakes  any'  thing 
unless  he  sees  his  way  entirely  through  the  millstone. 
He  covers  over  his  really  profound  knowledge  of  human 
nature  with  an  appearance  of  eccentricity  and  extra- 
vagance. If  any  of  our  readers  indulge  the  idea  that 
Brownlow  is  not  'smart,1  in  the  full  acceptation  of 
the  term,  they  should  abolish  the  delusion  at  once  and 
forever.  Crafty,  cunning,  generous  to  his  particular 
friends,  benevolent  and  charitable  to  their  faults,  un- 
grateful and  implacable  to  his  enemies,  we  cannot  re- 


AMONG  THE   KEBELS.  343 

frain  from  saying  that  he  is  the  best  judge  of  human 
nature  within  the  bounds  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 

"  In  procuring  from  the  Confederate  authorities  a  safe^- 
conduct  to  a  point  within  the  Hessian  lines,  he  has 
exhibited  the  most  consummate  skill.  Absenting  him- 
self from  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Knoxville, — hiding 
at  a  point  where  he  was  concealed  from  the  observation 
of  any  one,  save  his  particular  friends, — with  easy 
communication  with  the  military  commanders  at  the 
Knoxville  post, — he  succeeding  in  foiling  the  Confederate 
authorities  at  every  point.  By  a  hypocritical  appeal 
to  Southern  generosity  against  what  he  chose  to  term 
'  mob-law,'  he  succeeded  in  concealing  his  real  where- 
abouts just  long  enough  to  accomplish  his  real  purposes. 
Time  was  all  he  wanted. 

"  Cajoling  the  authorities  here  with  the  idea  that  'he 
was  doing  nothing,'  his  emissaries  were  dispatched  to 
Richmond.  By  a  species  of  diplomacy  and  legerde- 
main, Secretary  Benjamin  is  induced  to  believe  that 
Brownlow,  forsooth,  is  quite  a  harmless  individual. 
The  move  was  made,  the  blow  was  struck,  and  the 
shackles  fall  from  the  person  of  Brownlow.  Brownlow 
was  triumphant,  and  Benjamin  outwitted.  In  fact,  we 
do  not  know  whether  to  laugh  or  get  mad  with  the 
manner  in  which  Brownlow  has  wound  the  Confederate 
Government  around  his  thumb.  That  Brownlow  is 
now  laughing,  like  the  king's  fool,  in  his  sleeve,  we  doubt 
not  for  a  moment. 


344  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


pledge  to  convey  Brownlow  within  the  Hessian 
lines  has  been  made  by  the  head  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment of  the  Confederate  States  ;  and  even  if  this  pro- 
mise was  procured  by  fraud  and  misrepresentation,  as 
we  have  heard  intimated,  yet  it  must  be  fulfilled  to  the 
exact  letter.  In  giving  Brownlow  the  promise,  the 
Confederate  authorities  have  committed,  in  our  opinion, 
what  has  been  so  often  characterized  as  '  worse  than  a 
crime,  —  a  blunder.1  That  all  the  authorities,  in  this 
case,  acted  in  perfect  good  faith,  we  do  not  and  will  not 
doubt  ;  that  they  have  been  outwitted  and  overreached 
diplomatically,  we  can  affirm  with  equal  truth. 

"  Brownlow  !  God  forbid  that  we  should  unnecessarily 
magnify  the  importance  of  this  name;  but  there  are 
facts  connected  with  the  character  of  the  man  which  a 
just  and  discriminating  public  would  condemn  in  us 
did  we  not  give  them  due  notice. 

"  In  brief,  Brownlow  has  preached  at  every  church 
and  school-house,  made  stump-speeches  at  every  cross- 
road, and  knows  every  man,  woman,  and  child,  and 
their  fathers  and  grandfathers  before  them,  in  East 
Tennessee.  As  a  Methodist  circuit-rider,  a  political 
stump-speaker,  a  temperance-orator,  and  the  editor  of 
a  newspaper,  he  has  been  equally  successful  in  our  di- 
vision of  the  State. 

"  Let  him  but  once  reach  the  confines  of  Kentucky, 
with  his  knowledge  of  the  geography  and  the  popula- 
tion of  East  Tennessee,  and  our  section  will  soon  feel 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  345 

the  effect  of  his  hard  blows.  From  among  his  own  old 
partisan  and  religious  sectarian  parasites  he  will  find 
men  who  will  obey  him  with  the  fanatical  alacrity  of 
those  who  followed  Peter  the  Hermit  in  the  first 
Crusade.  "We  repeat  again,  let  us  not  underrate  Brown- 
low." 


346  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THROUGHOUT  January  and  February,  whilst  I  lay 
sick,  and  much  of  the  time  very  low,  the  very  old  devil 
seemed  to  have  been  turned  loose.  The  reverses  the 
Rebels  met  with  after  this  year  set  in  seemed  to  fill 
them  with  all  the  malice  of  hell !  Every  little  upstart 
of  an  officer  in  command  at  a  village  or  cross-roads  would 
proclaim  martial  law,  and  require  of  all  going  beyond, 
or  coming  within,  his  lines,  to  show  a  pass,  like  some 
negro  slave !  A  singular  and  persistent  error  seems  to 
cling  to  the  minds  of  all  Secessionists  in  regard  to  the 
power  of  military  officers  to  declare  martial  law.  It  is 
certain  that,  by  the  law  of  the  land, — in  force  in  war 
as  well  as  in  peace, — military  officers  have  no  right  to 
establish  and  exercise  over  persons  not  in  the  military 
service  a  law  inconsistent  with,  or  in  violation  of,  or 
paramount  to,  the  common,  universal  civil  law  of  the 
land. 

The  legislative  authorities  alone  have  power  to  de- 
clare and  establish  martial  law.  In  England,  a  con- 
test between  the  king  and  the  people,  as  to  this  power, 
resulted  in  favor  of  the  people,  and  wrung  from  Charles 
the  First  a  pledge  that  the  king  and  his  officers  would 
no  more  attempt  its  exercise.  And  now  in  England 


Interview  of  Madison  Gate  with  hia  Family,    (Page  329.) 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  347 

no  principle  of  liberty  is  better  understood  and  more 
surely  guarded  than  that  no  other  authority  than  the 
Parliament  can  declare  or  establish  martial  law.  In 
America  the  same  law  prevails,  for- the  principle  of  law 
is  here  the  same  as  in  England.  This  was  decided  in  the 
Borden  case,  which  grew  out  of  the  Dorr  Kebellion  in 
Khode  Island.  That  decision  sets  forth  that  it  is  alone 
competent  to  the  Legislature  of  a  State,  by  public  act, 
to  declare  martial  law.  In  the  case  of  General  Jackson 
at  New  Orleans,  in  1815,  the  question  subsequently  got 
into  the  Supreme  Court  of  Louisiana,  an  able  bench 
and  profoundly  learned  in  the  law;  and  that  .tribunal 
decided  that  no  military  officer,  no  matter  of  how  high 
a  grade,  could  lawfully  arrest  or  suspend  the  action  of 
the  regular  courts  of  the  country.  (See  the  case 
reported  by  Martin.) 

But  in  Knoxville  that  bad  man  and  tyrant,  Lead- 
better,  alone  presided  in  his  military  court,  declared 
martial  law,  and  refused  to  obey  the  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  when  issued  by  Judge  Brown. 

But  to  return  to  the  wicked  spirit  of  Secession,  as 
displayed  in  the  South.  I  take  the  following  from  the 
Columbus  (G-a.)  Times  of  January: — 

"OLD  BROWNLOW. — This  poor  devil  is  leading  a 
checkered,  if  not  a  very  pleasant,  life.  Being  tired  of 
viewing  mountain-scenery,  to  which  romantic  business 
the  fear  of  justice  had  driven  him,  he  proffered  to  sur- 
render himself  to  the  Confederate  military  authorities 
on  condition  that  he  be  protected  in  his  exit  from  the 

30 


348  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

country  to  a  more  congenial  latitude.  The  condition 
was  accepted  by  Secretary  Benjamin,  and  the  old  sinner 
accordingly  surrendered  himself  to  the  military  au- 
thorities. Upon  his  release  therefrom,  he  was  arrested 
under  a  civil  process  and  lodged  in  jail  to  answer  for 
his  crime  against  the  laws  of  Tennessee.  His  case 
being  brought  up  in  the  Commissioners'  Court  at  Knox- 
ville  on  the  27th  December,  a  letter  was  read  from 
Secretary  Benjamin,  stating  that,  in  order  to  maintain 
the  integrity  and  good  faith  of  the  Government,  he 
should  feel  it  his  duty  to  advise  the  President  to  pardon 
the  Parson  for  any  offence  of  which  he  might  be  found 
guilty.  Under  the  circumstances,  the  District  Attorney 
entered  a  nol.  pros,  in  the  case,  and  Brownlow  was 
again  released.  On  the  same  day,  however,  he  was  re- 
arrested  and  remanded  to  jail  by  the  military  authori- 
ties. Now,  this  hoary-headed  and  persistent  traitor  is 
occupying  too  much  of  the  time  and  attention  of  the 
country.  HE  DESERVES  DEATH,  AND  WE  VOTE  TO  KILL 
HIM." 

And  next  comes  a  specimen  of  Secession  literature  in 
the  shape  of  a  resolution  passed  by  the  Kebel  Legisla- 
ture of  Tennessee.  The  author  of  the  resolution  is  one 
General  Lane,  of  the  county  of  McMinn ;  and  I  doubt 
not  that  the  climate  there  will  soon  be  too  hot  for  his 
comfort : — 


"  Resolved,  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Tennessee,  That  the  conduct  and  treasonable  movements 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  Horace  Maynard,  Emerson  Ethe- 
ridge,  and  such  others  of  our  public  men  as  have  expa- 
triated themselves  from  our  State,  are  regarded  as  alien 
enemies  of  our  people,  and  the  infamy  and  turpitude 
of  whose  offences  win  the  sovereign  contempt  and  per- 
fect indignation  of  all  good  and  loyal  citizens,  as  well 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  349 

also  as  the  just  punishment  of  the  law  in  such  cases 
made  and  provided." 

The  Nashville  Gazette,  of  as  late  a  date  as  February, 
gave  this  mild  and  humane  order  to  the  lamb-like 
saints  of  the  Nashville  Vigilance  Committee: — 

"It  is  said  there  are  still  some  Union  men  in  Nash- 
ville. If  it  be  possible  that  such  WHITE-LIVEEED 
SCOUNDRELS  are  really  in  our  midst,  our  citizens  CANNOT 

BE    TOO    VIGILANT    IN    WATCHING    THEIR    MOVEMENTS. 

WATCH  them !  WATCH  them !  WATCH  them !" — Feb.  13. 

The  authors  of  this  bull  are  a  pretty  set  to  call  for 
clemency,  liberality,  humanity,  and  compassion  at  the 
hands  of  Governor  Johnson  or  the  provost-marshal  of 
that  city. 

In  the  Memphis  Appeal  the  following  advertisement 
appears,  going  forth  from  two  Rebel  officers  in  East 
Tennessee : — 

"  BLOODHOUNDS  WANTED. — We,  the  undersigned, 
will  pay  five  dollars  per  pair  for  fifty  pairs  of  well-bred 
hounds,  and  fifty  dollars  for  one  pair  of  thorough-bred 
bloodhounds  that  will  take  the  track  of  a  man.  The 
purpose  for  which  these  dogs  are  wanted  is  to  chase 
the  infernal,  cowardly  Lincoln  bushwhackers  of  East 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky  (who  have  taken  the  advan- 
tage of  the  bush  to  kill  and  cripple  many  good  soldiers) 
to  their  haunts  and  capture  them.  The  said  hounds 
must  be  delivered  at  Captain  Hanmer's  livery-stable  by 
the  10th  of  December  next,  where  a  mustering-ofiicer 
will  be  present  to  muster  and  inspect  them. 

"F.  N.  McNAiRY. 

"E.  H.  HARRIS. 

"CAMP  CRINFORT,  CAMPBELL  Co.,  TENN.,  Nov.  16. 


350  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

"P.S. — Twenty  dollars  per  month  will  also  be  paid 
for  a  man  who  is  competent  to  train  and  take  charge  of 
the  above  dogs." 

Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  vaunted  chivalry  of  the 
Southern  army.  They  first  disarm  Union  men;  and 
then  advertise  for  "bloodhounds"  to  run  them  down. 
"What  barbarity !  In  New  Orleans  they  have  a  regi- 
ment of  negroes ;  and  under  the  notorious  Albert  Pike 
they  have  Indians,  who  have  been  scalping  Federal  sol- 
diers. Before  this  war  is  over,  these  savage  beasts  will 
have  other  employment  than  that  of  hunting  Union 
men  with  "bloodhounds,"  drilling  negroes,  or  bringing 
Indians  into  the  field  with  their  scalping-knives. 

On  the  1st  of  February  last,  the  Nashville  Patriot 
used  the  following  atrocious  language  in  regard  to  the 
Union  men  of  "West  Tennessee  : — • 

"We  trust  that  the  name  of  each  and  every  one  of 
these  vile  Tories  will  be  taken  down  and  sent  to  us. 
We  want  to  keep  them  for  future  reference.  We,  will 
put  their  names  as  high  on  the  roll  of  infamy  AS  THEIR 

DESPICABLE  BODIES  OUGHT  TO  BE  ON  THE  GALLOWS." 

In  Chattanooga,  a  hell-born  and  hell-bound  Vigilance 
Committee  resolved  to  put  to  death  fifteen  or  twenty  of 
the  prominent  Union  men  of  that  place  if  the  Federal 
army  should  dare  to  approach  there.  This  was  done  to 
induce  the  army  to  stay  away;  but  the  device  will 
utterly  fail.  The  Federal  forces  are  destined  to  be  there 
this  summer,  and  there,  too,  in  force.  I  append  the 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  351 

names  of  this  committee  as  I  find  them  in  a  Nashville 
paper : — 

VIGILANCE   COMMITTEE   OF   CHATTANOOGA,  TENNESSEE. 

Israel  J.  Browning,  R.  M.  Hooke, 

William  D.  Fallton,  Malone  Johnson, 

John  W.  Hoyl,  Edward  Marsh, 

J.  Swim,  William  Moore, 

S.  E.  McCamy,  W.  B.  Whiteside, 

Jesse  Thompson,  James  C.  Owner. 

Here  is  the  call  of  the  Richmond  Examiner,  of  Fe- 
bruary 21, 1862,  upon  the  chivalry  of  the  South.  They 
have  grown  desperate  from  the  many  floggings  they 
have  received  from  the  Yankees,  five  of  whom  could 
not  stand  before  a  Southern  man : — 

"But  if  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  have  any  real 
manhood,  these  reverses  will  inspire  them  with  deter- 
mination. They  will  cease  to  palter  between  the  laws 
of  peace  and  the  measures  of  war.  They  will  enrol 
their  names,  and  compel  the  enrolment  of  all  over 
whom  they  have  any  control.  They  will  silence  traitors 
with  the  halter  or  the  pistol.  They  will  force  their 
Government  and  their  generals  to  energy,  their  troops 
to  fight;  devote  to  resistance  the  last  man,  the  last 
dollar,  the  last  gun ;  support  defeat  after  defeat  with- 
out murmurs ;  ravage  their  fields  and  burn  their  crops 
on  the  advance  of  the  foe ;  pluck  victory  from  despair, 
and  deserve  the  future  prosperity  and  security  with 
which  Providence  has  never  yet  failed  to  reward  a 
downright  endeavor  for  independence." 

Ramsey,  the  villainous  and  corrupt  attorney  who  had 
so* 


352  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

me  arrested,  swore  out  a  warrant  against  Mr.  Fleming, 
of  Knoxville,  a  Union  member  of  the  Legislature,  and 
followed  him  to  Nashville  and  arrested  him.  He  was 
tried  before  Judge  Humphreys,  of  the  Confederate 
Court,  and  in  the  Patriot  for  February  10  this  report 
of  the  case  is  given  : — 

"THE  CASE  OF  HON.  JOHN  M.  FLEMING. — This  case 
came  up  for  consideration  in  the  Confederate  Court  on 
Monday.  Mr.  Fleming  was  arrested  in  December  last 
on  a  charge  of  having  'harbored,  secreted,  and  con- 
cealed' Dr.  K.  H.  Hodsden,  who  was  charged  with 
treason.  After  a  full  investigation,  we  understand  that 
the  court  decided: — 

"1st.  That  Dr.  Hodsden  had  committed  no  treason. 

"2d.  That  the  defendant  (Fleming)  did  not  harbor, 
secrete,  and  conceal  Dr.  Hodsden. 

"3d.  That  there  is  nothing  in  the  conduct  of  said 
Fleming  that  would  warrant  the  court  in  requiring  any 
obligation  on  his  part  to  be  a  loyal  citizen. 

"4th.  That  the  defendant  be  unconditionally  dis- 
charged, and  that  the  Confederate  States  pay  the  costs 
of  this  prosecution." 

As  far  back  as  April,  1861,  the  vilest  spirit  cha- 
racterized the  movements  of  these  incarnate  devils. 
See  the  following  correspondence  from  the  Memphis 
Avalanche : — 

"TRENTON,  TENNESSEE,  April  16,  1861. 

"To  J.  D.  C.  ATKINS  AND  K.  G.  PAYNE:— 

"Etheridge  speaks  here  on  Friday.  Be  here  to 
answer  him  Friday  or  next  day.  ." 

The  following  is  the  answer  to  the  above: — 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  353 


"MEMPHIS,  April  16. 

"To  MESSRS. : — 

"  I  can't  find  Atkins.  Can't  come  at  that  time.  If 
Etheridge  speaks  for  the  South,  we  have  no  reply.  If 
against  it,  our  only  answer  to  him  and  his  backers 
must  be  cold  steel  and  bullets. 

" (Signed)  B.  G.PAYNE." 

Jan.  28,  1862. — For  days  and  nights  I  have  been 
very  sick,  and  have  ceased  to  keep  up  my  regular 
journal.  A  strong  guard  has  been  kept  around  my 
house,  and  my  friends  and  neighbors  have  been  denied 
the  privilege  of  visiting  me.  That  prince  of  villains, 
tyrants,  and  murderers,  Colonel  Leadbetter,  has  come 
rushing  into  my  room,  and  insultingly  demanded  to  know 
when  I  would  be  ready  to  leave  the  Confederacy, — adding 
that  "  very  many  persons  were  anxious  that  I  should 
be  sent  out  of  the  country."  I  replied  to  him  that 
I  was  improving,  but  utterly  unable  to  travel,  as  •! 
could  not  sit  up,  but  assured  him  that  I  would  go  as 
soon  as  I  could  travel,  and  that  I  was  more  anxious  to 
leave  than  his  "  many  persons"  could  be  for  me  to  go. 
He  insultingly  rose  up,  started  out,  and  told  me  to  let 
him  know  when  I  felt  able  to  travel. 

Jan.  30. — One  Burcli  Cook,  the  captain  of  a  com- 
pany, and  the  drunken  tool  of  this  Leadbetter,  came  in 
and  read  me  an  order  requiring  my  instant  removal 
to  the  hospital,  where  I  could  be  guarded  more  effectu- 


354  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

ally  and  be  prevented  from  plotting  treason  with  Union 
leaders.  I  protested  against  being  dragged  out  of  my 
room,  when  unable  to  sit  up,  and  placed  in  a  cold  room 
without  fire,  to  vacate  a  feather-bed  and  go  upon  such 
a  mattress  as  I  would  find  in  the  hospital.  He  spoke 
in  an  abrupt  and  insulting  manner  to  my  wife, — as 
only  a  coarse,  vulgar  man,  a  profane  swearer,  and  a 
common  drunkard,  such  as  he  is,  would  do.  He  pre- 
tended to  doubt  the  reality  of  my  sickness,  and  said 
he  was  instructed  to  bring  in  one  of  the  hospital-sur- 
geons to  examine  me.  Accordingly,  Dr.  Love  was 
called  in  :  he  examined  me  thoroughly,  and  gave  a  cer- 
tificate to  Cook  to  the  effect  that  my  removal  at  that 
time  to  the  place  designated  would  jeopardize  my 
life.  This  seemed  to  defeat  their  hellish  schemes  to 
get  me  out  where  they  could  poison  me  or  have  me 
assassinated,  and  they  at  once  placed  a  double  guard 
around  me;  with  orders  not  to  allow  any  one  to  enter 
the  house  but  my  family  physician.  Cook  came  in 
and  directed  that  a  sentinel  should  stand  in  each  of  the 
doors  leading  into  my  room,  with  a  loaded  musket,  and 
also  stationed  guards  around  the  house.  This  was 
the  order  of  the  scoundrel  Leadbetter;  and  Cook  was 
a  suitable  instrument  to  execute  such  an  order. 

/Saturday,  8th  February. — Leadbetter  this  day  refused 
James  R.  Cocke,  one  of  my  lawyers,  the  privilege  of 
visiting  me,  although  Cocke  is  one  of  the  moderate  but 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  355 

decided  Secessionists  of  the  town.  He  denounced  me 
to  Cocke,  and  insultingly  told  him  that  he  had  no 
business  to  visit  such  a  man  ! 

Sunday,  9th  February. — This  day  was  celebrated,  in 
part,  by  a  gang  of  these  Kebel  troops  congregating  in 
my  office  and  library,  and  in  my  back  yard,  playing  cards 
and  swearing.  No  remedy  for  a  man  in  such  cases ! 
F.  S.  Heiskell,  an  old  citizen  of  this  county,  and  a 
friend  of  mine,  made  application  to  Leadbetter  for  leave 
to  visit  me,  but  was  insultingly  refused.  He  was  told  that 
I  was  a  bad  man,  and  that  he  ought  not  to  contaminate 
himself  by  visiting  me.  Major  Heiskell  controverted 
the  statement, — told  him  that  he  had  known  me  for 
years,  and  that  he  knew  me  to  be  a  clever  and  an 
honorable  man.  Angry  words  were  exchanged,  and 
the  parties  separated. 

Wednesday,  12th  February. — The  Eebel  mob  seized 
upon  the  hall  in  East  Knoxville — used  in  part  as  a 
Methodist  church,  where  a  Union  congregation  wor- 
ships— and  placed  in  it  a  portion  of  one  of  their  regi- 
ments. The  representatives  of  the  congregation  re- 
monstrated, saying  that  it  had  been  fitted  out  at  con- 
siderable expense  by  a  poor  congregation  of  Methodists, 
mostly  mechanics.  Major  Burleson  replied  that  he  had 
ordered  it  to  be  taken  because  he  understood  it  was 
"the  property  of  old  Brownlow."  The  members  told 


356  BROWNLOW'S   EXPEEIENCES 

him  that  it  was  not, — that  Brownlow  was  indeed  one 
of  the  largest  contributors  towards  building  it  and 
fitting  it  up,  but  that  it  was  conveyed  to  trustees  for  the 
three-fold  purposes  of  worship,  education,  and  tempe- 
rance. They  told  him  that  Brownlow  held  his  mem- 
bership there,  and  that  but  for  him  it  never  would 
have  been  built, — but  that  he  was  not  even  one  of  its 
trustees. 

This  man  was  urged  to  destroy  the  hall  by  a  hardened 
villain,  John  H.  Crozier,  whose  nomination  has  just 
been  rejected  by  the  Legislature,  in  secret  session,  by 
an  overwhelming  vote.  Governor  Harris  had  nomi- 
nated him  as  a  commissioner  to  settle  the  war-claims. 
Only  one  East  Tennesseean  voted  to  confirm  his  nomi- 
nation. There  is  half  a  million  of  dollars  involved  in 
the  settlement.  Crozier  is  a  scoundrel,  and  a  brother 
of  the  man  lately  involved  in  swindling  the  State  out 
of  her  bonds  through  some  banking-operations. 

Thursday,  Feb.  14. — The  Register,  the  Secession 
organ,  contains  a  call  for  a  meeting  of  the  citizens 
of  the  town  and  county  to  organize  a  regiment  for 
home-defence,  in  view  of  the  approach  of  the  Federal 
army.  Procession  formed  and  marched  to  the  court- 
house, Confederate  flag  flying,  and  drum  and  fife  in 
operation.  Crozier  and  Sneed  headed  the  procession, — 
men  who  were  never  known  to  resent  an  insult,  and 
whose  families  have  packed  up  their  goods  to  leave. 


AMONG  THE  BEBELS.  357 

These  two  men  addressed  the  crowd,  and  they  adjourned 
to  meet  again. 

Friday,  Feb.  15. — War-meeting  reassembled  at  the 
court-house.  Rev.  Isaac  Lewis  presided, — an  old  Loco- 
foco  Secessionist,  who  has  three  grown  sons,  neither 
of  whom  can  be  induced  to  go  into  the  service,  but 
all  are  candidates  for  civil  offices.  Colonel  Baxter 
made  a  speech,  and  killed  off,  very  properly,  their 
meeting;  reviewed  their  treatment  of  Union  men. 
Kev.  Richard  0.  Curry,  a  Presbyterian,  made  a  violent 
speech  against  Union  men.  Disgraceful  assault  upon 
Union  men,  and  a  slander  against  their  patriotism ! 

I  have  this  day  written  a  letter  to  Colonel  Vance, 
complaining  of  my  condition;  but,  as  I  concluded  it, 
he  called  in  to  visit  me,  and  I  read  him  the  contents, 
as  follows : — 

AT  HOME,  Feb.  15, 1862. 

COLONEL  EGBERT  VANCE  : 

I  am  glad  to  learn  that  you  are  in  command  of  this 
post,  and  I  hope  you  may  be  continued  while  it  is  my 
lot  to  remain  here  under  guard  and  in  prison.  As 
you  are  no  doubt  aware,  I  have  not  been  able  to  write 
for  several  days;  and  this  hasty  letter  I  indite  while 
propped  up  in  bed.  But  I  write  to  give  you  an  account 
of  my  treatment  by  those  associated  with  you  and 
preceding  you. 


358  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

I  think  I  may  venture  to  say,  by  way  of  prelimi- 
nary, that  I  am  not  prone  to  utter  complaints,  but 
usually  exercise  a  good  degree  of  patience.  For  the 
first  five  weeks  of  the  last  seven  that  a  guard  has  been 
placed  around  and  in  my  room,  I  have  voluntarily 
given  them  three  meals  in  each  day,  seating  them  at 
my  table  with  my  family,  considering  it  no  hardship, 
as  I  knew  most  of  them  to  be  Union  men  forced  into 
the  service.  When  even  a  different  class  of  men  were 
selected,  who  took  possession  of  my  library  and  office, 
where  my  two  sons  sleep, — when,  I  say,  this  was  seized 
upon  and  turned  into  a  guard-house,  rocking-chairs 
broken  to  pieces,  carpet  ruined,  and  books  damaged, — 
when  my  coal  and  wood  were  taken  and  consumed, 
though  dear  and  difficult  to  procure, — and  when  I  have 
furnished  their  guard-house  candles  all  the  time, 
though  none  are  to  be  had  in  the  market, — I  have  not 
complained.  When  your  predecessor,  Colonel  Lead- 
better,  has  refused  my  son  John  the  privilege  of  col- 
lecting debts  due  me  from  the  clerks  and  sheriffs  of 
surrounding  counties,  which  they  are  ready  and  anxious 
to  pay  me,  and  which,  in  my  broken-down  condition, 
I  really  need  to  live  on,  I  have  uttered  no  words  of 
complaint.  When,  for  several  days  past,  out  of  a 
family  of  thirteen  in  number  only  my  wife,  my  son 
John,  and  two  negroes  were  off  the  sick-list, — when 
both  the  mumps  and  measles  were  introduced  by  armed 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  359 

sentinels  standing  day  and  night  in  my  room  and  at  my 
doors, — I  have  not  uttered  even  a  single  word  of  com- 
plaint. When  my  house,  and  especially  my  passage  and 
front  portico,  have  been  shamefully  abused  by  these  sen- 
tinels, disfigured  with  mud  and  tobacco,  I  have  submitted 
in  silence,  though  conscious  of  the  bad  treatment  given 
me.  "When  we  have  all  been  kept  from  sleep  by  the 
walking,  talking,  singing,  and  swearing,  and  by  a 
change  of  these  guards  every  two  hours, — when  they 
have  rudely  rushed  into  my  bedchamber,  as  they  said, 
to  get  warm, — I  have  submitted  without  one  word  of 
complaint.  I  have  felt  that  there  is  a  better  day  coming 
for  me  and  my  family,  if  I  am  not  assassinated, — which 
is  threatened  me  on  every  hand !  I  have  had,  and  I 
still  have,  confidence  in  the  final  success  of  the  prin- 
ciples for  which  I  am  made  to  suffer  these  cruel  indig- 
nities ;  and  hence  I  have  been  silent. 

But  last  night,  when  my  wife  attempted  to  close  and 
fasten  a  back  door  by  which  my  bedroom  is  entered, 
and  it  the  only  fastening  to  my  room  in  the  rear  of  the 
building,  she  was  insultingly  notified  by  the  sentinel,  a 
drunken  Secessionist,  that  it  must  stand  open  all  night, 
and  that  such  were  his  orders  from  Captain  Cook,  to 
whose  company  he  was  attached:  she  told  him  that 
it  could  not,  and  should  not,  stand  open, — that  there 
were  three  other  sick  persons  in  the  room  besides  me, 
and  one  of  them  a  little  daughter  with  fever;  and  she 

31 


360  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

accordingly  closed  it  upon  him,  and  locked  it,  expect- 
ing him  to  break  it  down. 

Of  this  treatment,  Colonel  Vance,  I  do  complain,  and 
especially  as  threats  are  made  that  the  door  shall  be 
kept  open  to-night.  My  appeal  for  relief  is  to  you. 
To  your  predecessor,  Leadbetter,  I  can  make  no  appeal ; 
for  he  never  had  a  gentlemanly  emotion  of  soul  in  his 
life;  and,  if  he  were  capable  of  such  feelings,  he  is  the 
willing  and  malicious  instrument  of  a  villainous  clique 
here,  of  most  corrupt,  vindictive,  and  despicable  scoun- 
drels, of  whom  John  H.  Crozier,  J.  C.  Ramsey,  and  W. 
Gr.  Swan  are  chief. 

There  is  no  call  for  this  double  guard  around  me. 
It  is  done  to  oppress  me  and  my  family.  My  wife  and 
children  are  treated  as  prisoners ;  and  all  marketing  is 
excluded  from  the  house  by  a  military  order  not  to 
allow  any  persons  to  enter  my  door  or  yard.  I  hope, 
for  the  honor  of  the  Southern  character,  that'no  other 
private  family  within  the  eleven  Seceded  States  is  sub- 
jected to  such  an  ordeal.  Certain  I  am  that  such 
tyranny  and  oppression,  such  outrages  and  insults,  will 
never  diminish  my  esteem  for  J:he  old  United  States 
Government,  or  increase  my  respect  for  the  Southern 
Confederacy. 

Feeble  as  I  am,  I  am  ready  and  anxious  to  go  beyond 
your  lines,  as  it  will  relieve  my  family  of  this  oppres- 
sion. If  I  cannot  be  removed,  in  accordance  with  the 
pledge  of  your  War  Department,  I  am  willing,  nay, 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  361 

desirous,  to  go  back  to  jail,  if  that  will  secure  the  re- 
pose of  an  afflicted,  insulted,  and  outraged  family. 
I  am,  very  truly,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 

Sunday,  Feb.  16. — Colonel  Vance,  as  might  have 
been  expected  of  a  gentleman  of  his  known  character, 
relieved  my  family  of  this  great  annoyance  of  a  double 
guard,  and  stationed  two  sentinels  there,  to  relieve 
each  other  during  the  day,  with  instructions  to  retire 
at  night,  so  as  to  allow  us  to  sleep  in  quiet.  Cook's 
men  left  the  same  day  for  Cumberland  Gap,  where  it 
is  hoped  the  Secession  portion  of  them  will  find  em- 
ployment. 

Monday,  Feb.  17. — A  Georgia  regiment  arrived  here 
to-day  from  Pensacola,  under  command  of  Colonel  Man- 
gum.  A  portion  of  them  got  drunk ;  took  the  town ; 
called  in  front  of  the  court-house  to  mob  Colonel 
Baxter;  Circuit  Court  in  session;  Baxter  appeared, 
told  them  he  was  the  man  they  were  hunting,  denounced 
the  scoundrels  who  set  them  on  him,  and  pointed  out 
young  Crozier  as  a  goggle-eyed  little  scoundrel  who 
had  tried  to  set  them  on  him. 

Squads  of  the  Georgia  patriots  have  passed  my  house 
at  different  times,  surveyed  my  premises,  and  inquired 
how  strong  the  guard  was.  Colonel  Vance  to-night 


362  BROWKLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

has  put  an  additional  guard  of  ten  men  at  my  house, 
to  prevent  their  attacks. 

Secessionists  have  received  the  news  of  the  fall  of 
Fort  Donelson,  but  have  kept  it  a  profound"  secret, 
until  the  members  of  the  Legislature  have  arrived  and 
disclosed  it.  They  are  in  great  trouble. 

Tuesday,  Feb.  18.— The  news  of  the  fall  of  Fort 
Donelson  no  sooner  reached  here  than  several  of  our 
most  intense  Southern  patriots  packed  up  and  left  for 
other  quarters.  "W.  H.  Sneed,  John  H.  Crozier,  W.  Gr. 
McAdoo,  C.  W.  Charlton,  and  poor  little  Graves,  have 
fled  to  parts  unknown,  going  mostly  in  the  direction 
of  the  Cotton  States.  These  men  are  all  original 
Secessionists  but  McAdoo,  and  they  were,  less  than  a 
week  ago,  proposing  to  raise  a  regiment  for  home-de- 
fence, and  proposing  to  die  in  the  last  ditch.  It  is 
said  that  most  of  these  men  were  looking  back,  as  they 
took  to  flight,  to  see  if  Lincoln's  invaders  were  coming. 
Kegiment  after  regiment  of  Georgia  troops  have  been 
arriving ;  but  this  has  only  made  it  look  more  like  a 
fight  approaching.  These  men  have  not  even  taken 
time  to  sing  their  favorite  hymn,  commencing  with 
these  beautiful  lines  : — 

"  How  tedious  and  tasteless  the  day 

When  the  Federals  no  longer  we  see! 

Fair  prospects,  high  fees,  and  good  pay 

Have  lost  all  their  sweetness  for  we." 

The  panic  seems  to  have  been  general  throughout 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  363 

the  State.  A  Secessionist  writing  from  Chattanooga  to 
the*  Knoxville  Register — all  Secession  authority — thus 
describes  the  alarm  of  the  Southern-Rights  men : — 

"Verily,  these  are  days  of  trial  to  our  young  re- 
public. In  addition  to  disastrous  reverses  to  our  arms, 
we  have  some  most  humiliating  examples  of  incapacity, 
if  not  worse,  in  the  management  of  our  military  affairs. 
I  am  no  '  croaker,'  nor  do  I  assume  to  dictate  the  war- 
policy  of  the  Government;  but  certain  moves  have 
been  recently  made  which  astonish  and  confound  the 
mere  lookers-on,  but  ardent  sympathizers  with  our 
cause.  I  refer  to  the  evacuation  of  Nashville,  and  the 
incidents  connected  therewith. 

"  It  seems  that  General  Johnston  informed  the  authori- 
ties of  the  city  on  Sunday  last  that  he  could  not  hold  it. 
although  no  enemy  was  near  or  threatened  it.  Imme- 
diately all  was  consternation  and  alarm.  The  Governor 
and  Legislature  fled  panic-stricken.  With  this  example 
set  them,  nothing  better  could  be  expected  of  the  citi- 
zens. Mr.  V.  K.  Stevenson,  Quartermaster-General, 
and  President  of  the  Nashville  &  Chattanooga  Rail- 
road, &c.  &c.,  instead  of  standing  sentry  at  his  post 
and  protecting  the  immense  accumulation  of  military 
stores,  and  controlling  the  railroad  so  as  to  remove 
them,  fled.  Early  on  Monday  morning  he  loaded  several 
cars  with  his  personal  effects,  his  negroes,  horses,  car- 
riages, and  household  furniture,  including  his  own 
sacred  person,  and  hastened  to  this  city,  where  he  has 
ever  since  remained.  By  his  direction,  all  the  rolling 
stock  was  hurried  to  this  end  of  the  road,  and  no  effort 
— or  next  to  none — was  made  to  bring  any  of  the 
Government  property  from  the  doomed  city.  Nearly 
a  week  has  elapsed,  and  no  enemy  has  approached. 
During  this  time  every  pound  of  bacon  and  ordnance 
and  quartermaster's  stores  could  easily  have  been  re- 
moved to  Murfreesborough,  if  no  farther.  Instead  of  this 

Si* 


364  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

being  done,  the  doors  of  the  storehouses  were  thrown 
open,  the  people  invited  to  carry  away  all  they  wished, 
and  the  torch  was  applied  to  the  rest !  Was  ever 
such  wanton  abandonment  and  destruction  of  pro- 
perty?" 

Like  the  "  Fishing  Creek"  warriors,  these  men  will 
run  on  until  they  reach  the  other  side  of  sundown. 
When  they  fled  from  Zollicofier's  battle-ground,  they 
came  into  Kno^ville  bare-headed  and  bare-footed,  on 
mules  and  stolen  horses;  and,  although  they  were  one 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  where  they  got  so  terribly 
basted,  they  were  still  looking  back  to  see  if  the 
"  Lincolnites"  were  after  them.  A  portion  of  these 
racers  were  the  cowardly  scoundrels  who  used  to 
groan  about  my  house  and  flourish  their  pistols  and 
knives,  swearing  what  they  would  do  with  my  flag. 
They  have  at  length  come  up  with  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
in  more  hateful  proportions  than  they  found  them  at 
my  house.  Some  of  them  have  got  their  rights  in  this 
drive. 

These  rebels  used  to  swear  with  emphasis,  and  with 
varied  intonations,  that  they  intended  to  "die  in  the 
last  ditch."  I  think  they  are  in  search  of  this  ditch, 
and  in  a  fair  way  to  find  it.  This  heroic  phrase  is 
traceable  to  that  country  of  dikes  and  ditches,  Hol- 
land. It  is  said  that  William  of  Orange,  when  hard 
pressed  by  England  and  France,  said  that  he  would 
avoid  beholding  the  ruin  of  his  country  by  dying  in 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  365 

the  last  ditch.  His  idea  was  to  resist  the  invaders  to 
the  verge  of  the  ocean,  and  there  yield  up  his  life. 
These  Southern  rebels  are  looking  out  for  that  huge 
ditch,  the  Mississippi  River.  If  they  cross  that, — which 
I  predict, — they  will  have  no  ditch  left  them  to  die 
in  except  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  where  I  hope  they  will 
all  drown,  as  did  the  swine  in  the  Sea  of  Galilee  when 
the  devils  entered  into  them. 

Stronghold  after  stronghold  of  these  rebels  is  being 
carried  by  the  Federals,  and  they  are  refusing  to  die 
in  the  last  ditch.  They  afford  us  other  exhibitions, 
such  as  helter-skelter,  pell-mell,  harum-scarum,  hurry- 
skurry,  skadaddle-skadiddle,  devil-take-the-hindmost- 
man  in  fleeing  from  the  first  ditch.  But  the  last  ditch 
of  the  whole  concern  has  not  been  found.  That  is  a 
desirable  ditch,  as  there  never  was  a  drop  of  blood  in 
it,  and  it  is  the  place  of  all  others  where  there  is  no 
dying.  Thousands  of  legs  stride  over  it  at  "  Fishing 
Creek"  and  "Fort  Donelson"  rates,  but  they  never 
stop  to  kick  the  bucket  there.  But  if  you  want  to  see 
fighting,  let  a  company  of  these  braves  be  sent  o-ut  to 
defend  themselves  against  some  Union  Thermopylae 
where  the  Spartans  are  unarmed,  and  you  will  see  the 
Southern-Eights  men  "  die  in  the  last  ditch." 

Wednesday,  Feb.  19. — Two  additional  regiments  ar- 
rived from  the  South.  Town  overrun  with  troops,  cut- 
ting up  all  sorts  of  shines,  and  taking  possession  of  all 


366  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

vacant  houses,  and  of  the  Methodist  white  and  colored 
houses  of  worship  in  East  Knoxville. 

Captain  Latrobe,  a  Baltimorean,  of  the  artillery  ser- 
vice, ordered  to  guard  my  house  until  otherwise  in- 
structed. The  captain  has  acted  the  gentleman  towards 
us,  and  his  men  are  behaving  very  well. 

Thursday,  Feb.  20. — The  remains  of  Captain  Hugh 
L.  McClung,  Jr.,  who  was  killed  at  Fort  Donelson, 
were  interred  to-day  with  military  honors.  I  knew 
him  well.  He  was  very  clever,  and  as  a  merchant  and 
man  I  liked  him.  The  insane  madness  of  his  relatives 
in  favor  of  this  rebellion  had  much  to  do  with  causing 
him  to  rush  into  this  war.  They  would  now  reflect 
upon  themselves,  but  that  they  have  all  learned  the 
Southern  slang  of  the  righteousness  of  the  Rebel  cause 
and  the  sacredness  of  the  Southern  soil.  "Well,  every 
man  to  his  notion  ! 

Captain  Monserrat  returned  to-day  from  Nashville, 
and  is  again  in  command  of  this  post,  Colonel  Vance 
having  gone  to  Cumberland  Gap  with  his  regiment. 

Friday,  Feb.  21. — Two  regiments  from  Georgia  and 
Mississippi  left  for  the  Gap  to-day.  Their  departure 
has  given  relief  to  the  citizens.  Whilst  here,  they 
have  denounced,  in  unmeasured  terms,  Sneed,  Crozier, 
McAdoo,  Charlton,  and  Graves,  and  other  Southern- 
Rights  champions,  for  their  inglorious  flight.  The 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  36? 

Cleveland  (Tenn.)  Banner  is  also  down  upon  them  for 
fleeing  in  such  hot  haste. 

Saturday,  Feb.  22. — Governor  Harris,  since  his  pre- 
cipitate flight  to  Memphis,  has  issued  a  call  for  the 
entire  militia  of  the  State  to  be  mustered  into  service. 
He  even  proposes  to  take  the  field  himself,  provided,  in 
his  alarm,  he  can  halt  long  enough  to  organize. 

Sunday,  Feb.  23.— The  two  Methodist  houses  of 
worship  in  East  Knoxville  are  to-day  occupied  with 
swearing  and  card-playing  troops,  and  the  congre- 
gations are  driven  out.  The  churches  in  the  old  part 
of  the  city  are  not  disturbed,  because  their  pious  pas- 
tors are  Secessionists,  as  well  as  their  congregations,  to 
some  extent,  while  those  in  East  Knoxville  are  for  the 
Union,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time. 

Monday,  Feb.  24. — I  have  this  day  sent  to  Captain 
Monserrat,  commanding  this  post,  to  consult  him 
about  letting  me  out  of  the  Confederacy.  He  informs 
me  that  he  has  just  received  a  dispatch  from  General 
Winder,  commanding  at  Eichmond,  ordering  him  to 
deliver  me  to  him  in  that  city.  I  don't  like  this  indi- 
cation :  it  looks  to  me  like  another  intended  violation 
of  faith,  and  as  though  I  am  to  be  badly  treated. 

Tuesday,  Feb.  25. — The  town  and  county  are  both 


368  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

said  to  be  in  a  perfect  uproar,  on  account  of  the  Gov- 
ernor's call  for  the  militia.  All  hands  are  out,  offer- 
ing to  raise  companies,  so  as  to  avoid  being  drafted, — 
all  wanting  to  be  captains,  none  prepared  to  enter  the 
service  as  privates. 

Wednesday,  Feb.  26. — A  company  of  blackguards 
and  vagabonds,  called  cavalry,  rode  by  my  house  to- 
day, some  of  whom  cursed  and  denounced  my  wife, 
who  sat  at  the  window  sewing.  These  are  some  of  the 
cowardly  devils  who  ran  from  "  Fishing  Creek,"  and 
have  been  fitted  out  with  new  horses.  A  company  of 
them  can  demolish  any  unarmed  Union  woman  in  the 
country ! 

Thursday,  Feb.  27. — I  addressed  the  following  card 
to  Secretary  Benjamin  to-day : — 

KNOXVILLE,  Feb.  27,  1862. 

HON.  J.  P.  BENJAMIN  : — Satisfied,  upon  reliable  in- 
formation, that  my  personal  safety  forbids,  my  going 
out  of  this  Confederacy  by  way  of  Eichmond,  I  ask 
the  justice  to  allow  Major  Monserrat  to  send  me 
through  the  lines,  either  over  Cumberland  Mountain 
or  via  Nashville.  I  prefer  the  latter,  as  I  am  not  yet 
well  enough  to  undergo  the  fatigues  of  travelling  on 
horseback. 

Very  respectfully,  &c., 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW. 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  369 

Friday,  Feb.  28. — This  is  Jeff  Davis  s  day  for  fast- 
ing, humiliation,  and  prayer ;  and  if  ever  a  set  of  men 
needed  to  humble  themselves  before  God  and  confess 
their  sins,  it  is  the  men  associated  with  him  in 
this  infernal  rebellion.  The  hypocrites  of  the  town, 
and  many  false  pretenders  to  extraordinary  piety,  will, 
no  doubt,  turn  out  in  force.  The  day  is  beautiful,  the 
sky  clear  and  serene,  without  a  cloud ;  and  the  Eebels 
will,  no  doubt,  natter  themselves  that  Providence  is 
favoring  them  with  good  weather.  This  is  a  mistake : 
Providence  is  only  drying  up  the  roads  that  the  Fede- 
ral army  can  get  at  the  retreating  forces  of  the  de- 
moralized army  of  the  South. 

Saturday,  March  1. — The  elections  came  off  to-day 
for  sheriffs  and  other  county  officers,  and,  as  far  as  re- 
turns have  come  in,  the  Union  ticket  prevails.  Ay, 
and  it  always  will  prevail  in  East  Tennessee,  unless 
the  present  race  of  voters  are  extinguished. 

Thirty  Union  men,  well  dressed,  were  arrested  by 
the  cavalry,  who  found  them  leaving  for  Kentucky,  to 
avoid  the  draft  ordered  by  Governor  Harris.  Seven- 
teen of  them  agreed  to  join  the  Confederate  army,  to 
keep  out  of  jail. 

But  a  Sabbath  past,  they  brought  twenty  Union 
men  out  of  jail,  arms  tied  behind  them  with  strong 
ropes,  and  marched  them  with  bayonets  to  the  depot, 
cursing  and  insulting  them,  and  sent  them  off  to  Tus- 


370  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

caloosa,  to  be  held  as  prisoners  during  the  war.  To 
have  seen  them  coming  out  of  the  jail-yard  and  enter- 
ing the  street,  would  have  brought  tears  from  the  eyes 
of  the  unfeeling  Sepoys  of  India. 

Sunday,  March  2. — The  following  dispatch  has  just 
been  received  by  Major  Monserrat,  the  officer  in  com- 
mand of  this  post,  and  read  to  me  by  that  officer : — 

"RICHMOND,  March  2,  1862. 

"MAJOR  MONSERRAT: — You  are  authorized  to  send 
Brownlow  out  of  Tennessee  by  the  Cumberland  Moun- 
tains, or  any  other  safe  road. 

"  J.  P.  BENJAMIN,  Secretary  of  War." 

As  clouds  of  darkness  are  gathering  around  me,  and 
dangers  are  multiplying  in  every  direction,  I  have  re- 
solved, feeble  as  I  am,  to  go,  and  I  have  notified  the 
officer  that  I  shall  be  ready  to  leave  by  morning,  select- 
ing as  my  route  the  railroad  to  Nashville.  I  will  con- 
tinue my  journal  on  the  road,  if  I  can  do  so  without 
detection. 

Monday  night,  March  3. — I  left  home  this  morning 
at  seven  o'clock,  with  an  escort  of  four  citizens,  under 
command  of  Adjutant-General  Young  and  Lieutenant 
O'Brien,  officers  of  my  own  selection ;  and  upon  reach- 
ing Loudon,  thirty  miles  west  of  Knoxville,  we  were 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  371 

furnished  with  ten  armed  soldiers  for  an  escort.  These 
men  were  taken  from  Captain  Dill's  company  of  East 
Tennessee  troops.  Before  starting,  the  captain  made 
substantially  this  speech  to  his  men  : — "  Soldiers  !  you 
are  to  escort  Parson  Brownlow  to  Nashville,  under  the 
command  of  these  officers.  He  is  sent  out  by  the  Con- 
federate Government ;  and  your  duty  is  to  protect  him 
from  insult  and  injury,  at  all  hazards,  come  from  what 
source  they  may.  Treat  him  courteously  and  kindly, 
and  discharge  your  duty  as  men,  though  you  are 
engaged  in  a  cause  he  opposes." 

I  feel  grateful  to  Captain  Dill  for  this  manly  advice 
to  his  men,  and  I  have  so  far  found  his  men  of  the 
right  grit. 

At  Athens,  some  sixty  miles  west  of  Knoxville,  we 
met  a  train  filled  with  drunken  vagabonds,  on  furlough, 
returning  towards  Yorktown.  They  learned  that  I 
was  on  board,  and  made  a  rush  towards  my  car,  but 
were  repulsed  by  my  guard,  placed  on  the  rear  and 
front  platforms  by  officer  Young.  This  day  has 
brought  us  to  Bridgeport,  on  the  Tennessee  River, 
where  we  are  all  to  lie  over  until  to-morrow  morning, 
when  the  Nashville  train'passes. 

A  gentleman  who  is  well  informed  as  to  the  con- 
dition of  the  Eebel  army  furnishes  me  with  the  follow- 
ing information  as  to  the  force  they  have  in  the 
field :— Alabama,  20,000 ;  Arkansas,  10,500 ;  Florida, 
4500;  Georgia,  32,500;  Kentucky,  7200;  Louisiana, 

32 


372  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

31,200;  North  Carolina,  25,000;  Mississippi,  17,500; 
South  Carolina,  20,800;  Tennessee,  31,200;  Texas, 
7200;  Virginia,  57,400;  being  in  all  265,000  men, 
divided  into  368  regiments. 

Wartrace  Depot,  Friday,  March  7. — We  arrived 
here  three  days  ago,  and  have  all  been  detained  for 
the  want  of  authority  from  one  of  the  Confederate 
generals  to  raise  a  flag  of  truce  and  proceed  within 
the  Federal  lines.  Moreover,  the  rolling  stock  on  the 
road  to  Murfreesborough,  leading  to  Nashville,  has  all 
been  withdrawn.  We  have  sent  Mr.  Eogers,  a  civilian, 
but  one  of  our  escort,  to  Shelbyville,  on  a  branch  road, 
only  eight  miles  distant,  to  ask  of  General  Hardee,  in 
command  of  some  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  troops  at 
that  post,  to  grant  us  a  flag  of  truce.  Eogers  is  back, 
and  reports  that  Hardee  refuses  the  flag.  We  have 
started  Lieutenant  O'Brien  and  Eogers  to  Huntsville, 
to  head  the  Confederate  generals  Johnston,  Crittenden, 
Carroll,  Hindman,  Breckinridge,  Floyd,  and  Pillow,  in 
their  precipitate  flight  into  North  Alabama.  Our 
messengers  came  up  with  General  Albert  Sidney  John- 
ston at  Huntsville,  and  obtained  the  following  remark- 
able document : — 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  CONFEDERATE  DISTRICT,^ 
"HUNTSVILLE,  March  7,  1862.  j 

"LIEUTENANT  O'BRIEN,  Third  Tennessee  Regiment : — 
"SiR: — General  A.  S.  Johnston,  having  just  heard 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  373 

that  you  have  "brought  W.  G.  Brownlow  to  Wartrace,  as 
a  prisoner,  instructs  you  to  return  him  to  his  home,  or 
release  him  where  he  now  is,  as  he  may  elect. 
"  Bespectfully, 

"  W.  W.  MACKALL." 

This  order  to  return  me  to  my  home  was  in  effect 
to  send  me  back  into  the  lions'  den ;  and  the  one  to 
turn  me  loose  at  Wartrace  was  to  hand  me  over  to 
Morgan's  mob  of  cavalry,  who  were  eager  to  get  hold 
of  me.  Lieutenant  O'Brien  telegraphed  us  that  John- 
ston had  given  this  order,  and  we  telegraphed  back  for 
him  to  follow  on  to  Decatur  and  demand  of  General 
Crittenden  a  flag  of  truce,  exhibiting  to  him  our  pass- 
ports from  the  War  Department.  I  hope  before  a 
great  while  that  the  Federal  army  may  capture  this 
man  A.  /Sidney  Johnston,  and  not  release  him  until  the 
war  is  over. 

Lieutenant  O'Brien  came  up  with  General  Crittenden 
at  Decatur,  and  obtained  from  him  the  following  very 
different  order : — 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  SECOND  DIVISION,  1 
"CENTRAL  ARMY,  March  8,  1861.  J 

"In  obedience  to  the  orders  of  the  Secretary  of  War 
of  the  Confederate  States,  the  officers  in  charge  of  W. 
G.  Brownlow  will  conduct  him,  under  a  flag  of  truce, 
to  the  most  convenient  and  practicable  point  of  the 


374  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

lines   of  the    enemy,    and  deliver   him   over   to   the 
Federal  authorities. 

"  By  command  of  Major-G-eneral  Crittenden. 
"  POLLOCK  B.  LEE, 

"Assist.  Adjt.- General." 

With  this  authority  we  came  on  to  Shelbyville,  and, 
to  our  astonishment,  found  this  document,  and  the 
order  of  the  War  Department  at  Kichmond,  wholly  in- 
sufficient to  pass  us  through  the  Eebel  lines,  where 
Brigadier- General  Hardee  was  in  command,  as  the 
sequel  will  show.  At  the  dirty  hotel  at  Wartrace, 
where  we  could  get  nothing  fit  to  eat,  and  had  to 
lodge  in  a  filthy  room  on  still  more  filthy  Secession 
beds,  we  paid,  for  six  of  us,  for  three  days,  SIXTY  DOL- 
LARS ! 

Shelbyville,  March  14. — We  have  now  been  here 
seven  days,  being  refused,  by  General  Hardee,  the 
privilege  of  proceeding  to  Nashville.  Major  Picket,  a 
member  of  General  Hardee's  staff,  called  upon  one  of 
the  officers  having  me  in  charge,  and  signified  the 
general's  intention  to  dispatch  me  to  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  and  confine  me  in  jail.  He  was  told  that, 
with  the  documents  I  held  from  the  War  Department 
and  from  General  Crittenden,  it  would  be  a  disgrace  to 
the  Confederate  Government  to  re-arrest  and  imprison 
me. 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  375 

There  were  some  drunken  scoundrels  here  from  East 
Tennessee,  connected  with  the  army,  who,  upon  our 
arrival,  infused  into  the  already  corrupt  and  poisoned 
mind  of  this  humbug  of  an  officer,  Hardee,  all  the 
hatred  they  could,  and  sought  to  prevent  my  safe  con- 
duct beyond  the  Rebel  lines.  A  panic  prevailed  among 
these  cowardly  rascals,  equal  to  that  which  backed 
them  out  from  "  Fishing  Creek,"  Fort  Donelson,  and 
Bowling  Green,  and  they  were  not  inclined  to  respect 
the  orders  of  their  superior  officers. 

The  truth  is,  this  man  Hardee  is  engaged  in  re- 
moving their  Government  stores  to  Georgia,  Missis- 
sippi, and  Alabama;  and  they  are  working  in  dread 
of  General  Buell's  forces,  who  are  only  fifty  miles  dis- 
tant. They  feared — and  so  expressed  themselves — 
that  if  I  got  through  the  lines  safe  I  would  inform  the 
enemy  of  their  condition  and  have  them  all  bagged. 
I  greatly  prefer  their  being  bagged  down  on  the  line 
of  the  Cotton  States ;  and  I  am  well  enough  posted  to 
justify  the  prediction  that  this  will  be  done  before  a 
great  while.  May  God  hasten  the  hour  ! 

They  had  on  hand,  when  I  first  arrived  here,  the 
bacon  of  twenty-nine  thousand  hogs,  and  the  meat  of 
two  thousand  beeves.  They  have  seized  upon  the 
negroes  and  wagons  of  the  citizens  indiscriminately, 
and  used  them  in  brisk  style  to  haul  to  the  depot. 
In  these  hurried  movements  they  have,  nevertheless, 
discovered  that  the  bacon  of  some  fourteen  hundred 

32* 


376  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

hogs  is  missing.  They  have  instituted  a  search,  and 
found  the  bacon  of  two  hundred  of  their  missing 
hogs  in  .the  basement  story  of  a  large  brick  house,  one 
mile  from  town,  occupied  by  the  father  of  the  con- 
tractor with  the  Rebel  Government!  This  lot  has  just 
been  captured  by  General  Hardee  and  sent  off  on  the 
trains ;  but  no  punishment  is  to  be  inflicted  upon  the 
thieves,  as  they  are  all  Secessionists. 

This  man  Hardee  has  demanded  that  "  this  Brown- 
low  demonstration"  shall  cease;  by  which  he  means 
the  visits  of  Union  men  to  my  room,  and  the  visits 
of  Union  ladies,  who  all  sympathize  with  me.  This 
is  Bedford  county,  and  Shelby ville  is  the  county  town, 
and  both  are  strongly  Union;  while  the  presence 
of  a  demoralized  Southern  army  has  only  had  the 
effect  to  increase  the  devotion  of  the  people  to  the 
Union.  Hardee  is  by  no  means  adding  strength  to 
the  Rebel  cause.  He  is  the  well-known  humbug 
whose  book  of  "  Tactics"  is  in  use  in  the  army.  The 
translation  is  from  the  French :  it  was  made  in  Phila- 
delphia, by  an  officer  of  the  army,  and  Hardee  fathered 
the  production,  and  claims  the  authorship  of  what  he 
had  not  the  ability  to  produce.  This  is  known  to  the 
army-officers  North,  and  has  increased  their  contempt 
for  this  foolish  and  weak  man.  Hatred  to  General  Scott, 
by  Jeff  Davis,  while  Secretary  of  "War,  instigated  him 
to  employ  his  willing  tool,  Hardee,  to  get  up  this  new 
system  of  "Tactics,"  which  was  intended  to  displace 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  377 

Scott's  able  work.  The  lake  that  burns  "with  fire  and 
brimstone"  will  yearn  for  its  promised  aliment,  until  such 
men  as  these  get  there.  The  time  is,  however,  rapidly 
approaching  when  the  wailings  of  their  damned  ghosts 
will  rise  upon  the  flames,  and,  with  one  loud,  deep, 
long  wail,  in  bitter  utterances  of  remorse,  they  will 
exclaim,  "  THIS  EEBELLION  is  A  FAILUKE  !" 

I  have  never  been  more  kindly  treated  than  since  I 
came  here, — ladies  and  gentlemen  visiting  me  every 
day,  and  expressing  their  kind  regards  for  me.  As  a 
specimen,  I  give  the  following  correspondence  between 
the  lady-like  daughter  of  the  mayor  and  myself. 

"  SHELBYYILLE,  TENNESSEE,  March  11,  1862. 

"  EEV.  W.  G-.  BROWNLOW  : — 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Herewith  I  send  you  a  collection  of 
flowers,  which  I  beg  you  will  do  me  the  favor  to 
accept  as  a  small  token  of  the  high  esteem  which  I 
cherish  for  you  on  account  of  your  great  devotion  to, 
and  untiring  efforts  in  behalf  of,  our  once-glorious 
Union ;  and  beg  to  express  the  hope  that  the  Gov- 
ernment established  by  our  fathers  will  yet  be  sus- 
tained, and  bound  together  by  stronger  ties  than  those 
by  which  we  have  heretofore  been  united. 

"  With  sentiments  of  highest  esteem, 
"  I  beg  to  remain  your  friend, 

"  EDITH  J.  G-ALBRAITH." 


378  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 


SHELBYVILLE,  TENN.,  March  13,  1862. 

Miss  EDITH  J.  GALBRAITH: — 

During  the  six  days  I  have  been  detained  here  I 
have  been  called  upon  by  a  number  of  the  ladies  of 
Shelbyville,  both  married  and  single,  who  have,  in 
words  of  kindness,  expressed  their  sympathies  for  me 
in  my  departure  from  my  home  and  family.  These 
evidences  of  regard  have  greatly  comforted  me,  after 
my  confinement  in  a  crowded  and  uncomfortable  jail  for 
having  reiterated  to  the  people  of  East  Tennessee  what 
WASHINGTON  taught  us, — namely,  that  "  THE  CONSTI- 
TUTION IS  SACREDLY  OBLIGATORY  UPON  ALL  ;"  and  for 

having  proclaimed,  as  JACKSON  did,  "  THE  UNION — IT 

MUST   BE  PRESERVED." 

But  your  kind  note  of  the  llth  instant,  and  the 
accompanying  "collection  of  flowers,"  have  afforded  me 
a  pleasure  for  which  I  have  no  words  suitably  to 
express  my  thanks.  I  shall  at  least  carry  these  flowers 
with  me  to  the  redeemed  and  disenthralled  capital  of 
our  State,  where  I  can  see  the  glorious  Stars  and 
Stripes  of  our  distracted  country  floating  from  the 
dome  of  the  capitol. 

I  hope  at  no  distant  day  to  visit  your  noble 
Union  town  again,  when,  I  feel  perfectly  confident, 
our  loyal  State — rushed  out  of  the  Union,  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet,  under  the  lead  of  her  worst  men — 
will  be  back  in  the  old  Union,  and  her  citizens,  con- 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  379 

tented  and  happy,  determined  never  again  to  embark 
in  the  hell-born  and  hell-bound  cause  of  Secession. 
I  am,  very  respectfully,  &c. 

"W.  G-.  BEOWNLOW. 

I  will  record  an  incident  that  occurred  on  the  train 
as  I  came  to  this  point  and  to  Wartrace,  some  ten 
days  ago,  and  then  close  out  my  sojourn  in  Shelby- 
ville.  A  tall,  self-important  Rebel  officer,  dressed  in  a 
full  suit  of  uniform,  learning  at  the  depot  that  I  was 
on  board,  came  into  the  car,  and  inquired  of  one  of  our 
guards  if  I  was  on  board,  and,  being  told  that  I  was, 
said,  "  Show  me  Brownlow."  The  guard  pointed  out 
Adjutant-General  Young, — a  very  fine-looking  man, 
dressed  in  citizen's  clothes, —  and  said,  "That  is 
Brownlow,  with  the  slouch- cap  on."  He  gazed  at  him. 
He  frowned  with  the  scowl  of  a  demon,  wrinkled 
his  brow,  and,  with  a  sour,  sullen,  frowning  look, 
exclaimed,  "  I  am  satisfied.  He  is  a  mean-looking 
man.  I  believe  all  I  have  heard  about  him."  Thus  he 
retired,  passing  sentence  against  a  clever  gentleman 
and  a  man  of  really  fine  personal  appearance.  This 
shows  what  prejudice  will  do.  Here  was  an  officer  in 
the  Confederate  ranks  condemned  as  worthy  of  death 
for  a  supposed  lad  countenance,  because  he  was  erro- 
neously reported  to  be  a  man  against  whom  all  Rebel- 
dom  entertains  a  strong  prejudice. 


380  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Nashville,  March  15. — To-day,  at  twelve  o'clock,  I 
was  landed  within  the  Federal  lines,  having  come 
from  Shelbyville,  at  a  rapid  rate,  on  the  Knowlens- 
ville  turnpike.  We  had  up  the  white  flag  when  we 
came  upon  the  pickets.  They  halted  us,  and  inquired 
by  what  authority  we  had  that  flag  of  truce  up.  I 
alighted  from  the  buggy,  and  introduced  myself  to 
them  as  "Parson  Brownlow," — when,  with  one  accord, 
they  advanced  and  gave  me  a  cordial  shake  of  the 
hand.  They  said  they  had  heard  of  me  before,  and 
were  glad  that  I  had  come  within  their  lines. 

I  was  sent  for  by  Colonel  Jackson,  an  ex-Congress- 
man, and  a  noble  Kentucky  gentleman,  commanding  a 
regiment  of  cavalry.  I  was  treated  with  great  kind- 
ness and  with  marked  attention  by  the  officers,  while 
the  privates  crowded  around  to  see  me  upon  the  men- 
tion of  my  name.  I  felt  and  knew  that  I  was  among 
friends.  Nay,  I  felt  like  a  bird  out  of  a  cage.  Briga- 
dier-General Wood,  a  noble  son  of  Kentucky,  within 
whose  division  we  were,  (five  miles  distant  from  Nash- 
ville,) came  up  to  receive  our  flag  of  truce ;  and  a  more 
cordial  welcome  no  man  ever  received.  He  at  once  com- 
missioned Captain  Leonard,  of  his  staff,  to  turn  me  over 
to  General  Buell,  the  chief  in  command.  Our  only 
trouble  was  in  regard  to  Lieutenant  O'Brien,  a  Rebel 
officer,  who,  if  admitted  into  Nashville,  must  be  blind- 
folded. However,  General  Buell  met  me  with  the 
same  cordiality  with  which  I  had  been  greeted  before, 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  381 

and  said  that  my  friends — O'Brien,  Rogers,  Harrison, 
and  others — should  lodge  with  me  at  the  hotel :  ac- 
cordingly, we  were  all  landed  at.  the  St.  Cloud  Hotel. 

General  Buell,  as  I  understand,  is  a  native  of  Indiana, 
or  hails  from  there.  He  is  a  man  of  liberal  education 
and  cultivated  tastes, — a  man  of  fine  conversational 
powers,  and  a  chivalrous,  high-toned  gentleman.  Be- 
low six  feet,  he  is  heavily  built,  with  an  eagle  eye. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  handsome  uniform,  with  a  sort  of 
foraging-cap.  He  has  a  fair  complexion  and  blonde 
moustache,  with  suavity  and  politeness  written  in  every 
line  of  his  face.  I  take  him  to  be  about  forty-five 
years  of  age, — certainly  not  so  much  as  fifty.  He 
has  ninety  thousand  men  here,  and  more  arriving 
every  day.  He  has  the  confidence  of  his  command, 
and  will  move  his  forces  in  a  few  days  into  Alabama. 
He  asked  me  many  questions,  in  quick  succession, 
touching  East  Tennessee.  I  answered  him  promptly, 
and,  as  I  have  reason  to  believe,  quite  to  his  satis- 
faction. 

Nashville,  March  20. — I  have  here  found  Governor 
Johnson,  Horace  Maynard,  Emerson  Etheridge,  and 
Colonel  Trigg, — all  in  good  health,  and  glad  to  see  me 
landed  safe  in  the  United  /States.  Governor  Johnson  is 
here  as  Military  Governor,  with  the  rank  of  brigadier- 
general,  and  is  now  organizing  a  State  Government.  He 
will,  as  I  suppose,  declare  all  the  offices  in  the  State 


382  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

vacant  held  by  men  acting  in  pursuance  of  the  Confede- 
rate Constitution  and  of  the  mobocratic  oath  they  have 
taken.  The  Governor  issued  a  proclamation  yester- 
day, which  is  an  able  and  well-timed  document  and 
meets  the  case  as  it  exists  here.  After  speaking  of 
the  heresy  of  Secession ,  the  abdication  of  the  Execu- 
tive office,  the  dissolving  of  the  Legislature,  and  the 
Judiciary  being  in  abeyance,  he  concludes  his  procla- 
mation in  these  words  : — 

"  I  shall,  therefore,  as  early  as  practicable,  desig- 
nate for  various  positions  under  the  State  and  county 
governments,  from  among  my  fellow-citizens,  persons  of 
probity  and  intelligence,  and  bearing  true  allegiance 
to  the  Constitution  and  Government  of  the  United 
States,  who  will  execute  the  functions  of  their  re- 
spective offices  until  their  places  can  be  filled  by  the 
action  of  the  people.  Their  authority,  when  their  ap- 
pointments shall  have  been  made,  will  be  accordingly 
respected  and  observed. 

"  To  the  people  themselves  the  protection  of  the 
Government  is  extended.  All  their  rights  will  be 
duly  respected,  and  their  wrongs  redressed  when  made 
known.  Those  who,  through  the  dark  and  weary  night 
of  the  Eebellion,  have  maintained  their  allegiance  to 
the  Federal  Government,  will  be  honored.  The  erring 
and  misguided  will  be  welcomed  on  their  return.  And 
while  it  may  become  necessary,  in  vindicating  the  vio- 
lated majesty  of  the  law,  and  in  reasserting  its  im- 
perial sway,  to  punish  intelligent  and  conscious  treason 
in  high  places,  no  merely  retaliatory  or  vindictive  policy 
will  be  adopted.  To  those  especially  who  in  a  pri- 
vate, unofficial  capacity  have  assumed  an  attitude  of 
hostility  to  the  Government,  a  full  and  complete  am- 
nesty for  all  past  acts  and  declarations  is  offered,  upon 


AMONG    THE   REBELS.  383 

the  one  condition  of  their  again  yielding  themselves 
peaceful  citizens  to  the  just  supremacy  of  the  laws. 
This  I  advise  them  to  do  for  their  own  good,  and  for 
the  peace  and  welfare  of  our  beloved  State,  endeared  to 
me  by  the  associations  of  long  and  active  years  and  by 
the  enjoyment  of  the  highest  honors. 

"And,  appealing  to  my  fellow-citizens  of  Tennessee, 
I  point  them  to  my  long  public  life,  as  a  pledge  for  the 
sincerity  of  my  motives,  and  an  earnest  for  the  per- 
formance of  my  present  and  future  duties. 

"ANDREW  JOHNSON.'' 

Accompanying  this  proclamation  is  the  following 
ordinary  oath  of  office,  to  support  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Tennessee : — 


"STATE  OF  TENNESSEE, county. 

"On  this  the  —  -  day  of ,  186 — ,  personally 

appeared  before  me ,  of  the ,  and  took  and 

subscribed  the  following  oath,  in  pursuance  of  the  first 
section  of  the  tenth  article  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
State  of  Tennessee,  which  is  as  follows :  '  Every  person 
who  shall  be  chosen  or  appointed  to  any  office  of  trust 
or  profit  under  this  Constitution,  or  any  law  made  in 
pursuance  thereof,  shall,  before  entering  on  the  duties 
thereof,  take  an  oath  to  support  the  Constitution  of  this 
State,  and  of  the  United  States,  and  an  oath  of  office/ 
(he  having  already  taken  an  oath  to  support  the  Consti- 
tution of  Tennessee,)  to  wit : 

"  '  I, ,  do  solemnly  swear  that  I  will  support, 

protect,  and  defend  the  Constitution  and  Government 
of  the  United  States  against  all  enemies,  whether  do- 
mestic or  foreign,  and  that  I  will  bear  true  faith,  alle- 
giance, and  loyalty  to  the  same,  any  law,  ordinance,  reso- 
lution, or  convention  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding ; 
and,  further,  that  I  do  this  with  a  full  determination, 


384  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

pledge,  and  purpose,  without  any  mental  reservation  or 
evasion  whatsoever ;  and,  further,  that  I  will  well  and 
faithfully  perform  all  the  duties  which  may  be  required 
of  me  by  law.     So  HELP  ME  GOD.' 
"  Sworn  and  subscribed  to  before  me, 


The  Secessionists  regard  the  appointment  of  Governor 
Johnson  as  a  very  unfortunate  one ;  but  the  Union  men, 
irrespective  of  old  party  associations,  regard  it  as  most 
fortunate,  and  say  that  we  have  the  right  man  in  the 
right  place.  I  have  no  doubt  his  appointment  to  the 
office  will  give  general  satisfaction  to  Union  men 
throughout  the  State.  I  am  certain  this  will  be  the 
case  in  East  Tennessee. 

The  feeling  of  opposition  to  the  Federal  Government 
and  the  occupation  of  this  city  by  Federal  troops  is- 
gradually  giving  way  to  a  spirit  of  acquiescence,  and  to 
the  "sober  second  thought"  of  sensible  and  patriotic 
men.  The  good  order,  strict  discipline,  and  sober  habits 
of  one  hundred  thousand  troops  here  are  in  striking  con- 
trast with  the  thieving,  drinking,  and  other  revolting 
habits  of  the  so-called  Confederate  soldiers,  who  but 
recently  committed  all  manner  of  outrages  in  these 
streets.  Even  the  children  and  negroes  see  and  speak 
of  the  difference. 

The  ladies  of  Nashville  are  more  bitter  and  unyielding 
in  their  hostility  to  the  Federal  army  than  any  other 
class  of  citizens.  I  can  excuse  them:  most  of  them  have 
sons,  brothers,  or  husbands  in  the  Eebcl  army,  and  they 


AMONG-   THE    KEBELS.  385 

regard  Federal  officers  and  soldiers  as  their  enemies,  in 
search  of  their  relatives. 

Some  amusing  incidents  occurred  here  upon  the 
arrival  of  the  Federal  army,  under  command  of  General 
Mitchell,  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Donelson.  The  most 
stirring  incident  was  the  brass  bands,  on  the  gunboats 
and  transports,  playing  that  favorite  Southern  air,  "  In 
Dixie's  land  I  take  my  stand,"  &c.,  while  the  loyal 
citizens  cheered  long  and  loud.  A  game  lady,  full  of 
resentment,  as  they  passed  the  Square,  exclaimed, 
"Lack-a-day,  what  a  great  Lincoln  circus!"  "Yes," 
rejoined  an  Ohio  soldier:  "the  last  time  we  performed 
was  at  Fort  Donelson."  A  second  lady  inquired,  with 
an  air  of  disdain,  "How  far  do  your  lines  extend?" 
The  answer  was,  by  an  officer,  "  Our  lines,  madam,  ex- 
tend to  the  North  Pole;  and,  when  I  left  the  other  day, 
there  were  several  regiments  applying  for  transporta- 
tion South !" 

My  room  was  entered  last  evening  by  some  officers 
and  civilians  from  Kentucky,  and  I  was  literally  forced 
out  into  the  crowd,  in  front  of  the  St.  Cloud  Hotel, 
where  a  speech  was  demanded.  I  sought  to  be  excused; 
but  they  would  take  no  denial,  and  I  proceeded  to 
deliver  this  speech  : — 

Speech  of  W,  G-,  Brownlow  in  Nashville, 
GENTLEMEN  : — I  am  in  a  sad  plight  to  say  much  of 
interest, — too  thoroughly  incapacitated  to  do  justice  to 


386  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

you  or  myself.  My  throat  has  been  disordered  for  the 
past  three  years,  and  I  have  been  compelled  to  almost 
abandon  public  speaking.  Last  December  I  was  thrust 
into  an  uncomfortable  and  disagreeable  jail, — for  what? 
Treason  !  Treason  to  the  bogus  Confederacy ;  and  the 
proofs  of  that  treason  were  articles  which  appeared  in 
the  Knoxville  Whig  in  May  last,  when  the  State  of 
Tennessee  was  a  member  of  the  imperishable  Union. 
At  the  expiration  of  four  weeks  I  became  a  victim  of 
the  typhoid  fever,  and  was  removed  to  a  room  in  a 
decent  dwelling,  and  a  guard  of  seven  men  kept  me 
company.  I  subsequently  became  so  weak  that  I  could 
not  turn  over  in  my  bed,  and  the  guard  was  increased 
to  twelve  men,  for  fear  I  should  suddenly  recover  and 
run  away  to  Kentucky.  But  I  never  had  any  intention 
to  run,  and,  if  I  had,  I  was  not  able  to  escape.  My 
purpose  was  to  make  them  send  me  out  of  their  infamous 
Government,  according  to  contract,  or  to  hang  me,  if 
they  thought  proper.  I  was  promised  passports  by 
their  Secretary  of  War,  a  little  Jew,  late  of  New  Or- 
leans ;  and  upon  the  faith  of  that  promise,  and  upon  the 
invitation  of  General  Crittenden,  then  in  command  at 
Knoxville,  I  reported  myself  and  demanded  my  pass- 
ports. They  gave  me  passports,  but  they  were  from 
my  house  to  the  Knoxville  jail,  and  the  escort  was  a 
deputy  marshal  of  Jeff  Davis.  But  I  served  my  time 
out,  and  have  been  landed  here  at  last,  through  much 
tribulation.  When  I  started  on  this  perilous  journey, 


AMONG   THE -REBELS.  387 

I  was  sore  distressed  both  in  mind  and  body,  being 
weak  from  disease  and  confinement.  I  expected  to  meet 
with  insults  and  indignities  at  every  point  from  the 
blackguard  portion  of  the  Eebel  soldiers  and  citizens, 
and  in  this  I  was  not  disappointed.  It  was  fortunate, 
indeed,  that  I  was  not  mobbed.  This  would  have  been 
done,  but  for  the  vigilance  and  fidelity  of  the  officers 
having  me  in  command.  These  were  Adjutant-General 
Young  and  Lieutenant  O'Brien,  clever  men,  high- 
minded,  and  honorable;  and  they  were  of  my  own 
selection.  They  had  so  long  been  Union  men  that  I 
felt  assured  they  had  not  lost  the  instincts  of  gentlemen 
and  patriots,  afflicted  as  they  were  with  the  incurable 
disease  of  Secession ! 

But,  gentlemen,  some  three  or  four  days  ago  I  landed 
in  this  city,  as  you  are  aware.  Five  miles  distant  I 
encountered  the  Federal  pickets.  Then  it  was  that  I 
felt  like  a  new  man.  My  depression  ceased,  and  return- 
ing life  and  health  seemed  suddenly  to  invigorate  my 
system  and  to  arouse  my  physical  constitution.  I  had 
been  looking  at  soldiers  in  uniform  for  twelve  months, 
and  to  me  they  appeared  as  hateful  as  their  Confederacy 
and  their  infamous  flag.  But  these  Federal  pickets, 
who  received  me  kindly  and  shook  me  cordially  by  the 
hand,  looked  like  angels  of  light,  compared  with  the 
insulting  blackguards  who  had  been  groaning  and 
cursing  around  my  house. 

Why,  my  friends,  these  demagogues  actually  boast 

33* 


388  BKOWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

that  the  Lord  is  upon  their  side,  and  declare  that  God 
Almighty  is  assisting  them  in  the  furtherance  of  their 
nefarious  project.  In  Knoxville  and  surrounding 
localities,  a  short  time  since,  daily  prayer-meetings 
were  held,  wherein  the  Almighty  was  beseeched  to 
raise  Lincoln's  blockade  and  to  hurl  destruction  against 
the  Burnside  Expedition.  Their  prayers  were  partly 
answered :  the  blockade  at  Eoanoke  Island  was  most 
effectually  raised ! 

Gentlemen,  I  am  no  Abolitionist ;  I  applaud  no  sec- 
tional doctrines.  I  am  a  Southern  man,  and  all  my 
relatives  and  interests  are  thoroughly  identified  with 
the  South  and  Southern  institutions.  I  was  born  in  the 
Old  Dominion ;  my  parents  were  born  in  Virginia,  and 
they  and  their  ancestors  were  all  slave-holders.  Let 
me  assure  you  that  the  South  has  suffered  no  infringe- 
ment upon  her  institutions ;  the  Slavery  question  was 
actually  no  pretext  for  this  unholy,  unrighteous  conflict. 
Twelve  Senators  from  the  Cotton  States,  who  had  sworn 
to  preserve  inviolate  the  Constitution  framed  by  our 
forefathers,  plotted  treason  at  night, — a  fit  time  for  such 
a  crime, — and  telegraphed  to  their  States  dispatches 
advising  them  to  pass  ordinances  of  secession.  Yes, 
gentlemen,  twelve  Senaters  swore  allegiance  in  the  day- 
time, and  unswore  it  at  night. 

Soldiers  and  citizens !  Secession  is  well-nigh  played 
out, — the  dog  is  dead, — and  their  demoralized  army  are 
on  their  way  to  the  Cotton  States,  where  they  can  look 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  389 

back  at  you,  as  you  approach  their  scattered  lines. 
I  have  been  detained  among  them  for  ten  days;  General 
Hardee  refusing  to  let  me  pass.  This  was  only  fifty- 
five  miles  from  here,  in  the  sound  Union  town  of 
Shelbyville.  They  were  pushing  off  their  bacon  and 
flour  and  their  demoralized  men ;  and  I  hope  you  will 
follow  them  up.  You  will  overtake  them  at  the  Tennessee 
River, — sooner,  if  they  come  up  with  new  supplies  of 
mean  whiskey. 

But,  gentlemen,  you  see  that  I  am  growing  hoarse  in 
this  fierce  wind.  I  am  otherwise  feeble,  not  having 
attempted  to  make  a  speech  in  months.  Excuse  me, 
therefore,  and  join  me  in  this  sentiment,  should  this 
wicked  and  unholy  war  continue, — "  Grape  for  the  Rebel 
masses,  and  hemp  for  their  leaders  !" 

Night  before  last  I  heard  a  speech  from  Etheridge, 
delivered  before  an  attentive  audience  of  twelve  or  fif- 
teen hundred  persons.  He  spoke  over  two  hours.  I 
never  heard  him  in  a  regular  stump-speech  before.  I 
saw  at  once  the  secret  of  his  great  success  before  the 
people.  He  is  the  peoples  man,  and  keeps  up  the  inte- 
rest all  the  time.  He  was  severe  on  the  leaders  of  this 
rebellion,  but  not  more  so  than  they  deserved ;  and  his 
blows  met  with  a  hearty  response  from  the  crowd. 

This  army  is  moving  south,  by  divisions  of  twelve 
and  fifteen  thousand  each  day.  Generals  McCook, 
Mitchell,  Nelson,  Crittenden,  and  Thomas  have  all  gone, 


390  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

taking  the  different  pikes  leading  south.  There  will 
be  a  fearful  conflict  somewhere  in  North  Alabama,  or 
on  the  line  of  the  Memphis  &  Charleston  Eailroad.  I 
have  apprized  our  friends  of  the  strong  force  of  the 
enemy,  and  assured  them  that  they  would  have  a  bloody 
battle  when  they  met. 

Nashville,  March  21. — No  officer  in  this  vast  army 
has  impressed  me  more  favorably  than  Colonel  Fry,  the 
man  who  killed  General  Zollicoffer.  He  is  a  fine  officer, 
a  perfect  gentleman,  mild  and  unassuming,  and  a  devout 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  He  enjoys  the 
confidence  and  esteem  of  all  who  know  him. 

By  the  way,  the  Vandals  under  the  lead  of  Floyd 
destroyed  the  wire  suspension-bridge  here,  in  which 
General  Zollicoffer  had  some  $25,000  of  paying  stock, — 
and  about  all  he  leaves  behind  to  clothe  and  to  educate 
his  children — five  little  girls.  This  was  a  wicked  act, 
wholly  uncalled  for,  and  one  which,  while  it  could  do  no 
sort  of  damage  to  the  Federal  army,  brings  ruin  upon  a 
number  of  orphan  children.  Floyd  was  remonstrated 
with  by  Secessionists,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 

The  following  correspondence  will  explain  itself: — 

"COLLEGE  STREET,  SOUTH  NASHVILLE,  March  21,  1862. 

"  Mrs.  Dr.  Davis  presents  her  compliments  to  W.  G. 
Brownlow,  and  hopes  that  he  will  accept  the  accom- 
panying bouquet." 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  391 


NASHVILLE,  March  21,  1862. 

Mrs.  Dr.  Davis,  of  South  Nashville,  has  my  thanks  for 
the  beautiful  bouquet  sent  to  my  room  yesterday.  .  It 
is  gratifying  to  me  to  find  that  the  ladies  of  Nashville 
are  not  all  crazy  upon  the  subject  of  this  infamous 
rebellion.  I  took  tea  last  evening  with  some  Union 
ladies,  whom  I  found  in  their  right  minds,  as  they  have 
oeen  since  the  commencement  of  hostilities.  On  yester- 
day I  took  my  stand  in  front  of  E.  H.  McEwin's  man- 
sion, on  Spruce  Street,  and,  together  with  several  Union 
ladies,  waved  our  handkerchiefs  as  the  large  divisions 
of  well-dressed  officers  and  men  passed,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Generals  Thomas  and  Schoepff.  Each  regiment 
as  it  moved  south,  upon  the  Franklin  pike,  halted,  and 
played  us  a  national  air,  cheering  "  Parson  Brownlow 
and  the  ladies."  The  breeze  carried  the  Star-Spangled 
Banner  over  us  to  its  full  proportions,  and  the  sunshine 
illuminated  its  hues  in  all  their  beauty.  The  army  of 
one  hundred  thousand  men  now  leaving  here  and  going 
south  is  a  real  army,  magnificent  in  materiel,  admirable 
in  its  discipline,  sober  in  its  habits,  and  elegantly 
equipped  and  armed.  God  and  angels  smile  upon 
them,  and  victory  must  attend  their  march  and  strug- 
gles. 

Our  heretofore  patriotic  State  is  coming  to  her  senses, 
and  this  sad  and  unnatural  war  must,  in  the  very  nature 
of  things,  soon  close  out.  For  myself  I  shall  ask  no 


302  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

higher  honor  than  that  of  being  booked  as  on  the  Union 
side  of  this  struggle.          Kespectfully,  &c., 

W.  G-.  BROWNLOW. 

I  heard  an  able  speech  last  evening  from  Hon. 
Horace  Maynard.  He  spoke  two  and  a  half  hours,  to 
a  large  and  interested  audience.  I  have  heard  him  on 
many  occasions,  but  never  have  I  heard  him  when  he 
was  so  eloquent,  forcible,  and  effective.  His  history  of 
this  infamous  rebellion  was  pointed  and  convincing, 
and  his  language  was  chaste  and  beautiful.  His  argu- 
ments were  unanswerable,  and  listened  to  in  the  most 
profound  silence,  only  when  interrupted  by  enthusiastic 
bursts  of  applause.  The  speech  was,  throughout,  con- 
ciliatory, and  could  not  fail  to  have  a  good  effect. 

Here,  as  in  all  parts  of  the  South,  the  worst  class  of 
men  are  preachers.  They  have  done  more  to  bring 
about  the  deplorable  state  of  things  existing  in  the 
country  than  any  other  class  of  men.  And  foremost 
in  this  work  of  mischief  are  the  Methodist  preachers. 
Brave  in  anticipation  of  war,  and  prone  to  denuncia- 
tion on  all  occasions,  even  in  the  pulpit,  they  have 
been  among  the  first  to  take  to  their  heels.  Doctors 
McFERRiN,  SUMMERS,  and  McTYEiR,  of  the  Methodist 
Publishing  House,  have  all  fled  in  the  direction  of  the 
Cotton  States, — leaving  their  Book  Concern  vacant,  and, 
I  should  say,  not  more  than  solvent !  McFERRiN  was 
escaping  through  Shelbyville  as  I  approached  the  town, 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS. 

trying  to  exchange  a  refractory  nag  of  Secession  pro- 
clivities for  one  that  would  work  and  abide  by  Law 
and  order.  I  did  not  see  him. 

The  notorious  J.  JR.  Graves,  the  Baptist  editor,  has 
also  fled,  and  that  most  ingloriously.  He  went  through 
the  neighborhood  of  Shelbyville,  John  Gilpin-like,  stay- 
ing for  the  night  with  Major  Goggin,  a  Union  man, 
but  a  member  of  his  church.  He  was  following  up  his 
Methodist  associates  in  the  work  of  rebellion.  Graves 
is  a  Northern  man,  and  has  been  a  strong  anti-slavery 
man,  as  his  past  record  shows ;  but  to  prove  his  loyalty  to 
the  South  he  has  had  to  go  to  great  Secession  extremes. 
It  is  not  difficult  for  him  to  fall  in  with  Secession.  He 
seceded  from  the  Baptist  Church  a  few  years  ago,  and 
sought  to  destroy  it.  Failing  in  that  rebellion,  he  is 
now  about  to  take  satisfaction  out  of  the  United  States 
Government !  He  ought  to  get  up  a  regiment  of  men 
and  arm  them  with  the  pikes  manufactured  here  to 
fight  Yankees  with. 

A  dreadful  retribution  awaits  these  men.  Called  of 
God,  as  they  say,  to  preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  they 
have  been  for  twelve  months  preaching  war,  bloodshed, 
and  plunder;  but  now  they  are  ingloriously  fleeing  from 
the  wrath  of  an  approaching  Federal  army. 

Bishop  Soule, 

It  will  be  gratifying  to  the  numerous  friends  of  this 
venerable  man  of  God,  now  upwards  of  eighty  years 


394  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

old,  to  learn  that  he  is  still  a  staunch  advocate  of  the 
Union  and  of  the  Constitution  of  his  country.  He 
is  the  senior  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  the 
United  States,  and  a  man  of  learning,  of  great  acquire- 
ments, and  of  a  powerful  mind.  Chaplain  Stephen- 
son,  of  the  Fifteenth  Indiana  Kegiment, — a  man  whose 
acquaintance  I  have  made, — had  an  interview  with 
the  bishop  a  few  days  since,  at  his  residence  near 
Nashville,  which  he  thus  describes  in  a  letter  to  a 
friend : — 

"  General  Wood's  division  encamped  recently  seven 
miles  north  of  Nashville,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  quiet 
home  of  the  venerable  Bishop  Soule.  I  called  upon  the 
bishop  twice,  and  found  in  him  the  same  social,  court- 
eous, Christian  minister  I  have  always  regarded  him. 
He  remarked,  emphatically  and  solemnly,  '  I  have  never 
written  a  line  nor  uttered  a  sentence  politically :  I  have 
been  a  man  of  one  work.'  Lifting  his  majestic  form 
and  reaching  to  the  mantel-piece,  he  grasped  affection- 
ately a  newly-bound  old  book,  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  Eesuming  his  chair,  and  opening  the 
book,  he  said,  with  great  deliberation,  '  I  have  carefully 
read  and  closely  studied  the  Constitution,  and  have 
never  seen  any  clause  in  it  authorizing  or  providing  for 
division,  or  the  secession  of  one  or  more  States  from 
the  others.'  'We,  the  people,  may  change,  alter,  or 
amend.'  This  was  the  purport,  and,  as  nearly  as  I  can 
recollect,  the  precise  language  of  the  occasion :  he  au- 
thorized me  so  to  represent  him  to  his  friends ;  and  I 
take  pleasure  in  disabusing  a  prejudice  arising  from  a 
misapprehension  of  his  views." 

DR.  JEPHTHA  FOWLKER. — This   is  a  distinguished 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  395 

citizen  of  Memphis,  and  a  large  property -holder.  He  is 
a  true  man  in  every  sense,  brave,  generous,  and  loyal, 
though  forced  by  circumstances  to  bow  to  the  storm  of 
Secession  which  has  raged  with  so  much  fury  in  West 
Tennessee.  He  is  one  of  the  owners  and  editors  of  the 
Memphis  Avalanche,  and  in  his  issue  for  March  8 
publishes  the  following  : — 

"PARSON  BROWNLOW  EN  ROUTE  FOR  WASHINGTON. 

"We  learn  that  this  distinguished  individual  left 
Knoxville  on  the  3d,  under  an  escort  or  guard  of  ten 
men,  for  Nashville.  He  has  doubtless  reached  his  des- 
tination safely.  We  regret  to  part  from  an  old  and 
valued  friend,  one  who  stood  by  us  in  times  past,  when 
we  needed  his  friendship.  We  are  well  assured  he  has 
left  behind  him  at  Knoxville  a  set  of  men  far  more 
detrimental  to  the  Southern  Government  than  he  would 
ever  have  proven  if  he  had  been  kindly  treated.  He  is 
a  true  man  to  his  principles  and  professions,  while  they 
are  false  to  themselves,  others,  and  the  Government. 
He  has  our  good  wishes  for  himself  and  his  family, 
whatever  may  betide  him  in  life.  His  health,  we  learn, 
is  much  improved." 

This  article,  as  I  understand,  caused  a  split  between 
the  doctor  and  his  partner  and  associate  editor,  and  dis- 
solution of  partnership  followed.  Since  then,  through 
the  machinations  of  an  infamous  clique  at  Knoxville, 
he  has  been  arrested  and  confined  in  prison  at  Mem- 
phis. I  hope  the  Federal  army  will  relieve  him  soon. 
And  should  he  appear  in  any  one  of  the  loyal  States, 
sooner  or  later,  I  bespeak  for  him  the  treatment  due 
10  a  TRUE  MAN,  a  gentleman,  and  "  a  man  of  soul  sin- 

34 


396  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

cere."  I  have  known  him  long  and  intimately,  and  1 
would  perform  a  pilgrimage  to  any  quarter  of  the  globe 
to  serve  him. 

Fort  Donelson,  March  23. — I  am  now  seventy-five 
miles  west-by-north  from  Nashville,  on  the  Cumber- 
land River.  This  is  Stewart  county,  and  Dover  is  the 
county  town.  I  came  down  on  board  that  floating 
palace,  the  Jacob  Strader.  -Dover  is  on  the  left  bank 
of  the  river,  elevated  by  a  considerable  rise  in  the  hill. 
It  will  never  be  known  hereafter  by  any  other  name 
than  that  of  Fort  Donelson,  where  the  late  terrible 
battle  was  fought.  The  marks  of  the  fight  are  to  be 
seen  on  every  hand.  The  graves  of  the  dead  show 
arms  and  legs  protruding  out  of  the  ground,  and  the 
odor  is  very  offensive.  Though  our  boat  stays  all 
night,  I  did  not  go  out  to  see  the  evidences  of  the 
death  and  carnage  that  reigned  here  but  a  few  days 
since. 

The  United  States  troops  stationed  here,  and  those 
on  steamers  just  arriving  from  the  Northwest,  learn- 
ing that  I  was  on  board,  surrounded  our  boat,  and 
called  repeatedly,  until  I  was  forced  out  on  deck,  where 
I  addressed  them  in  substance  as  follows  : — 

SOLDIERS  AND  CITIZENS  : — I  suppose  you  think  me  a 
stubborn  sort  of  man,  as  I  have  resisted  so  many  calls, 
and  calls  so  loud  and  enthusiastic,  as  have  been  made 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  397 

on  me  to-night.  The  truth  is,  I  am  not  able  to  speak, 
and  especially  am  I  not  able  to  face  the  wind  blowing 
so  fiercely  on  this  river.  I  am  fleeing  from  the  wrath 
to  come;  and  I  stand  before  you  to-night  as  a  brand 
plucked  from  the  scorching  flames  of  a  Southern  Con- 
federacy. I  am  just  from  the  land  of  oppression,  where 
there  are  no  constitutional  guards  left  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  rights  of  the  citizens, — where  they  have 
abolished  the  habeas  corpus,  provided  county  dungeons 
for  Union  men,  the  sweets  of  which  I  have  tasted; 
where  they  have  instituted  lettres  de  cachet,  violated 
mails,  disarmed  communities  and  individuals,  quartered 
drunken  troops  on  private  families,  hung  men  for  not 
being  Secessionists,  shot  down  others  in  their  fields  for 
adhering  to  the  Stars  and  Stripes,  muzzled  the  press, 
silenced  free  speech,  debauched  the  pulpit,  tortured 
women  and  children,  and  brought  into  service,  at  two 
and  four  dollars  per  day,  a  pensioned  band  of  depraved 
spies  and  informers.  You  could  not  expect  a  man  to 
speak  in  the  open  air,  coming  out  of  such  a  furnace  as 
this.  Still,  I  desire  to  bear  testimony  to  the  excellency 
of  the  most  loving,  forbearing,  and  beneficent  of  Govern- 
ments, the  Government  of  the  United  States.  Compared 
with  this  miserable  Southern  Confederacy,  it  rises  up 
on  the  highest  pedestal  of  moral  grandeur,  and  asserts  a 
commanding  claim  on  the  magnanimity  and  chivalry 
of  the  loyal  men  of  the  whole  country.  You  have 
lately  done  a  noble  work  here,  gentlemen,  and  the 


398  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPEEIENCES 

scenes  of  FORT  DONELSON  will  long  be  remembered  by 
the  Eebels  who  fled  from  here  under  the  lead  of  Floyd 
and  Pillow.  Nor  will  the  ten  or  fifteen  thousand  pri- 
soners you  bagged  at  this  point  soon  forget  the  drub- 
bing you  gave  them  on  this  memorable  hill.  With  the 
deluded  masses  I  sympathize,  but  with  the  corrupt 
and  reckless  leaders  I  cannot. 

Gentlemen,  I  am  but  recently  from  Shelbyville,  fifty- 
five  miles  from  Nashville,  where  I  was  held  over  ten 
days  by  that  miserable  tyrant,  General  Hardee.  He 
was  engaged  in  removing  meat  and  bread  South,  for 
the  Kebel  army  to  live  on  as  they  retire  to  the  Cotton 
States  in  search  of  the  last  ditch,  in  which  they  have 
pledged  themselves  to  die.  They  are  congregating  in 
force  along  the  line  of  the  Memphis  &  Charleston 
Eailroad,  and  somewhere  in  North  Alabama — probably 
below  Florence  and  Tuscumbia — they  will  make  a  de- 
termined stand.  A  battle  in  that  quarter  is  imminent, 
and  I  dread  the  consequences, — not  but  that  I  believe 
we  shall  whip  them  and  drive  them  farther  south,  but 
because  many  of  our  brave  men  will  be  slain.  Expelled 
from  there,  as  they  will  be,  they  will  fall  back  upon 
Grand  Junction,  and  then  upon  Memphis,  until  finally 
they  retire  into  Mississippi. 

We  are  soon  to  have  Memphis,  New  Orleans,  and 
Mobile,  and  in  their  capture  you  may  look  for  some  of 
the  finest  military  manoeuvres  of  the  war.  A  splendid 
field  is  presented  for  strategic  and  tactical  skill  on 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  399 

both  sides ;  but  we  have  the  advantage  of  them  in  gene- 
rals :  our  generals  are  capable  of  giving  wings,  legs, 
and  motion  to  their  armies.  "We  also  have  the  advan- 
tage in  the  powers  of  endurance  on  the  part  of  our 
privates,  and  their  clothing,  arms,  and  means  of  trans- 
portation. When  the  war  began,  they  could  whip  out 
five  of  you  with  one  Southern  man.  Now  they  are 
not  willing  to  fight  you  man  to  man. 

But,  gentlemen,  I  must  close  my  remarks.  You  see 
I  am  not  able  to  speak.  I  am  retiring  to  the  North 
for  rest.  Whenever  you  can  get  possession  of  my 
down-trodden  country,  I  design  to  return  to  my  family 
and  home.  I  have  no  idea  of  leaving  there.  I  want 
to  go  back  and  aid  in  driving  out  others  who  have  ex- 
pelled me.  I  therefore  retire,  and  introduce  to  you  my 
friend  and  townsman  Colonel  Trigg,  who  is  a  good 
speaker  and  good  Union  man,  and  a  refugee  from  tne 
persecutions  of  the  Eebels  in  East  Tennessee. 

Arrival  in  Cincinnati, 

At  no  point  since  I  reached  this  Government  have 
I  been  treated  with  more  kindness  and  more  real  hos- 
pitality than  in  Cincinnati.  Arriving  there  on  Thurs- 
day night,  I  was  met  at  the  wharf  by  Messrs.  Geffroy 
and  Gibson,  the  proprietors  of  that  well-kept,  quiet 
hotel,  the  "Gibson  House,"  on  Walnut  Street,  and 
kindly  tendered  the  hospitalities  of  their  house  as  long 
as  I  chose  to  remain.  Upon  reaching  the  "  Gibson 


400  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

House/'  where  I  was  most  hospitably  received,  I  was 
waited  on  by  the  Union  Committee  appointed  by  the 
Union  Convention,  and  by  them  conducted  to  the 
Merchants'  Exchange,  where  I  found  a  vast  assem- 
blage of  the  best  men  in  the  Queen  City,  and  was  in- 
troduced to  them  by  Joseph  C.  Butler,  Esq.,  President 
of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce. 

I  delivered  a  very  brief  address,  setting  forth  the 
state  of  things  in  East  Tennessee, — excused  myself  for 
not  speaking, — promised  a  speech  at  some  length,  at  such 
future  time  and  place  as  they  might  agree  upon, — and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  quite  a  number  of  gentlemen. 
The  committee  furnished  a  suite  of  carriages,  and  with 
them  I  took  a  most  agreeable  drive  through  Clifton 
and  Spring  Grove,  viewing  at  my  leisure  the  surround- 
ings of  the  most  populous  city  of  the  West,  alike  le- 
markable  for  its  extensive  trade,  rapid  growth,  genuine 
hospitality,  and  productive  industry. 

On  the  evening  of  the  4th  of  April  I  made  my  first 
regular  speech  in  "Pike's  Opera-House;"  and  I  will  let 
the  Cincinnati  Gazette  relate  the  particulars  of  the  in- 
troduction : — 

"Parson  Brownlow's  Public  Welcome, 

"We  very  much  doubt  whether  the  Opera-House, 

since  it  was  first  opened  to  the  public,  ever  contained  a 

larger  or  more  refined  assemblage  of  our  citizens  than 

on  last  evening  on  the  occasion  of  the  welcome  to  our 


AMONG   THE    EEBELS.  401 

city  of  the  illustrious  Tennessee  patriot,  Parson  Brown- 
low. 

"Before  the  doors  were  opened,  the  crowd  had  com- 
menced to  gather  on  Fourth  Street;  and  before  half-past 
seven  o'clock  not  a  vacant  seat  was  to  be  found  in  the 
house,  and  the  aisles  and  every  available  spot  were  oc- 
cupied. Many,  we  learn,  were  unable  to  obtain  even 
standing-room,  and  left  the  house.  The  turn-out,  con- 
sidering that  the  admission-fee  was  fifty  cents,  must 
have  been  very  gratifying  to  the  Parson. 

"  The  stage  was  decorated  with  a  number  of  American 
flags,  and  across  the  front  part  of  it  were  two  rows  of 
chairs,  on  which  were  seated  the  Vice-Presidents.  Im- 
mediately in  the  rear  was  a  raised  platform,  on  which 
were  seated  three  hundred  and  seventy-two  boys  and 
girls  from  the  district,  intermediate,  and  high  schools 
of  the  city,  who,  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  L.  W. 
Mason,  sang  the  following 


"All  hail !  all  hail  the  hero  unflinching  ! 

The  pure  patriot  we  sing,  unwavering  and  bold, 
Who  foul  treason  denounced,  and  with  deeds  was  still  clinching 

His  strong  speech,  when  vile  traitors,  in  numbers  untold, 
Howled  hatred  demoniac,  and  madly  were  clamoring 

His  life  should  be  forfeit.     Triumphantly  sing, 
And  utter  the  welcome  with  the  tongue's  feeble  stammering. 

The  welcome,  the  warm  welcome,  our  hearts  to  him  bring ! 
Safe,  safe  in  our  midst  we  shall  hear  the  man's  voice 
That  hath  cowed  all  his  foes,  and  made  us  rejoice  j 
Then  hail  him  again,  and  forever  and  aye! 
His  country  he  loves,  and  for  it  he  would  die ! 


402  BBOWHLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

"Rejoice!  rejoice!  for  Freedom  is  marching, 

With  her  power  resistless,  to  punish  and  crush, 
And  the  iris  of  Union  will  soon  be  o'erarching 

Again  our  loved  country,  when  its  brave  children  rush 
To  rescue  its  life  from  the  demons  now  seeking 

To  blot  out  its  name  from  the  nations  of  earth ; 
But,  rather  than  this,  let  their  black  blood  be  reeking 

Unpitied  from  earth,  so  disgraced  by  their  birth. 
Thus  speaks  he,  the  hero!     Then  sing  with  one  voice: 
We  love  and  revere  him,  in  his  presence  rejoice! 
Then  hail  him  again,  and  forever  and  aye! 
His  country  he  loves,  and  for  it  he  would  die ! 


"  Shortly  after  eight  o'clock,  Parson  Brownlow  came 
upon  the  stage,  leaning  upon  the  arm  of  Joseph  0. 
Batier,  Esq.,  the  President  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce. 

"  Mr.  Butler,  in  introducing  Mr.  Brownlow,  said : — 

"  LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — I  have  been  honored  with 
the  pleasing  duty  of  inaugurating  the  ceremonies  of 
this  occasion,  in  introducing  a  renowned  and  loyal  citi- 
zen of  our  sister  State  of  Tennessee, — a  State  forced, 
by  usurpation,  fraud,  and  violence,  into  rebellion  against 
a  Government  that  her  sons  in  by-gone  times  have  done 
so  much  to  maintain  and  establish,  and  now  suffers 
in  being  the  field  of  conflict  in  a  desolating  civil  war, — 
a  State  recently  baptized  again  into  the  fold  of  the 
Union  by  the  martyr  patriots'  blood  shed  upon  her 
soil,  and  will  be  confirmed  in  that  fold  by  continued 
deeds  of  heroic  daring, — within  whose  limits  has  been 
exhibited  by  her  loyal  sons  as  unfaltering  devotion 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  403 

and  love  of  country  as  have  ever  been  displayed  in  the 
history  of  any  people.  Surrounded  by  the  armed  bands 
of  desperate  and  cruel  military  despots,  given  up  to  the 
mercy  of  ignorant  and  vicious  mobs,  cut  off  from  all 
communication  with  and  support  from  a  Government 
they  were  sacrificing  themselves  to  maintain,  these 
patriots  of  Tennessee  were  driven  from  their  homes, 
suffered  in  jails,  and  sealed,  when  called  on,  with  their 
lives,  on  the  scaffold,  their  devotion  to  the  Union  and 
Constitution  established  by  their  fathers.  Through  a 
long  and  weary  summer,  through  the  dreary  fall  and 
winter,  with  hearts  sickened  by  many  disappointed 
hopes,  they  suffered  and  faithfully  endured.  And  now 
that  the  armies  of  the  Union  have  entered  their  State, 
and  the  flag  of  freedom  once  more  floats  over  its 
capital,  may  we  not  hope  that  the  hour  of  their  deli- 
verance is  at  hand  ?  God  grant  it  may  be  speedy ! 

"  One  of  this  noble  band  of  patriots  is  with  us  to- 
night. He  will  recount  to  you  some  of  the  scenes  he 
has  witnessed,  and  give  you  in  brief  the  history  of  the 
rebellion  in  his  once  prosperous  and  noble  State.  He 
has  sacrificed  on  the  altar  of  his  country  all  that  man 
holds  most  dear,  jeopardizing  not  only  his  own  life,  but 
the  lives  of  his  family  and  kindred,  in  vindicating  the 
sacred  cause  of  his  country.  If  we  honor  the  bravery 
displayed  on  the  battle-field,  how  much  more  should 
we  honor  him  who,  almost  alone,  sick  and  in  prison, 
tempted  by  seducing  offers  of  power  and  place,  and 


404  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

with  an  ignominious  death  daily  threatened,  maintains 
for  weeks  and  months,  with  unfaltering  trust,  his  faith 
and  virtue !  The  instinctive  homage  of  the  human 
heart  to  genuine  courage  we  pay  to  an  endurance  like 
this.  The  historian  who  will  record  for  the  perusal 
of  our  children  the  list  of  heroes  that  this  wicked  re- 
bellion has  brought  forth,  will  name  none  whose  match- 
less courage  is  surpassed,  or  the  bold  outline  of  whose 
character  for  outspoken  patriotism  so  overshadows  all 
cavil  and  criticism  as  the  hero  of  the  pulpit  and  the 
press  I  have  now  the  honor  of  introducing, — Mr.  W.  Gr. 
Brownlow,  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee." 

I  give  a  correct  report  of  this  Cincinnati  speech,  be- 
cause it  was  substantially  what  I  said  at  all  other 
points,  and,  next,  because  it  has  been  misrepresented 
in  Tennessee  and  subjected  to  unjust  criticism  by  the 
Eebel  press.  The  speech  occupied  one  hour  and  twenty 
minutes  in  its  delivery. 

Speech  in  the  Opera-House, 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  : — 

I  appear  before  you  to-night  in  accordance  with  the 
arrangement  of  a  committee — a  large  and  intelligent 
committee — of  citizens  of  your  own  town.  I  am  not 
before  you  for  the  purpose  of  making  an  effort  at  dis- 
play, or  of  trying  to  play  the  orator.  I  have  no  wish 
to  fascinate  or  to  charm  an  audience  with  a  fine  style 
of  speaking,  or  with  elegant  language.  I  therefore 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  405 

apprize  you  of  what  you  will  have  discovered  be- 
fore I  take  my  seat, — namely,  that  in  my  extempo- 
raneous addresses,  no  matter  what  the  theme  may  be, 
I  do  not  present  a  subject  with  an  eloquence  that 
charms,  with  that  critical  and  studied  acumen  that 
fascinates,  nor  yet  with  that  richness  of  diction  that 
captivates  an  audience.  This  I  regret  in  the  advo- 
cacy of  a  good  cause  like  that  of  the  preservation  of 
the  American  Union ;  for  there  is  no  power  like  that 
of  oratory.  Caesar  controlled  men  by  exciting  their 
fears ;  Cicero,  by  captivating  their  affections  and  sway- 
ing their  passions.  The  influence  of  the  one  perished 
with  its  author;  that  of  the  other  continues  to  this 
day,  and  will  continue  with  public  speakers  to  the  end 
of  time. 

I  feel  confident  that  I  address  an  appreciative  audi- 
ence, who  are  here  to  learn  facts  in  regard  to  the  GREAT 
REBELLION, — the  great  event  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury,— including  the  reign  of  terror  in  the  South  gene- 
rally, and  the  murderous  conduct  of  Secessionists  in 
East  Tennessee.  I  shall  look  more  to  what  I  say  than 
to  my  manner  of  saying  it, — more,  if  you  please,  to  the 
subject-matter  of  my  speech  than  to  any  exhibition  of 
rare  powers  of  analysis,  wit,  satire,  or  remarkable  force 
and  beauty  of  language.  I  will  state  what  I  know  to 
be  true,  without  drawing  upon  my  imagination  for  any 
thing.  I  will  give  names,  dates,  and  localities ;  and  I 
challenge  now,  or  hereafter,  a  contradiction  of  what  I 


406  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

say  touching  the  great  Kebellion  in  the  South,  the  per- 
secution of  my  fellow-countrymen,  and  of  their  suffer- 
ings even  unto  death. 

I  have  met,  since  my  arrival  in  this  city,  with  not  a 
few  intelligent  and  high-toned  gentlemen, — men  of 
years  and  of  knowledge, — who  have  inquired  of  me, 
seriously,  "  Is  it  a  fact  that  they  hanged  men,  shot 
others  down,  and  imprisoned  not  a  few,  for  their  senti- 
ments?" You  cannot,  it  seems  to  me,  gentlemen, 
realize  the  horrible  state  of  affairs  existing  beyond  the 
mountains,  and  especially  in  East  Tennessee. 

I  have  been  accustomed  to  public  speaking  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  and  I  have  seen  the  day  when  I 
could  make  myself  heard  at  any  reasonable  distance. 
Then  I  was  a  young  man ;  and  I  admit,  ladies,  not  now 
being  a  widower,  that  this  was  a  long  time  ago.  But 
those  days  with  me  have  gone  by,  and  are  now  num- 
bered with  the  years  beyond  the  Flood.  For  more  than 
three  years  past  I  have  been  suffering  from  a  stubborn 
case  of  bronchitis,  and  could  not  speak  at  times  above 
a  whisper.  I  was  advised  by  Professor  Horace  Green, 
of  New  York,  who  performed  an  operation  on  iny 
throat,  to  exercise  my  speaking-machinery  frequently 
in  short  speeches.  I  have'  done  so,  sometimes  preach- 
ing "short  sermons,  and  at  other  times  delivering  tem- 
perance-speeches,— both  good  causes.  Strange  to  say, 
my  voice  has  never  returned  in  any  good  degree  until 
since  I  landed  in  the  United  States  and  opened  my 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  407 

batteries  against  this  wicked  rebellion  and  the  infinitely 
infernal  leaders  who  inaugurated  it !  Under  the  pro- 
vidence of  God,  and  with  my  continued  denunciations 
of  the  vile  heresy  of  Secession,  my  voice  is  gaining  all 
the  while ;  and  I  should  not  be  astonished,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  brief  months,  to  find  that  "  Richard  is  him- 
self again." 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  you  will  bear  with  me  for  a 
few  moments  whilst  I  make  other  remarks  personal  to 
myself.  This  I  think  I  may  venture  to  do,  by  way  of 
preliminary,  without  incurring  the  charge  of  egotism. 
Circumstances,  not  now  necessary  to  repeat,  have  con- 
nected my  name  with  this  rebellion  in  the  South,  and 
therefore  I  may  be  allowed  to  speak  more  freely  of 
myself  than  would  otherwise  become  a  modest  man, 
such  as  I  am.  Candidly,  I  deserve  no  credit  for  any 
thing  that  I  have  done,  or  for  what  I  have  endured.  I 
have  only  done  my  duty;  and  the  man  who  is  not  pre- 
pared to  submit  to  insult,  the  confiscation  of  his  pro- 
perty, the  incarceration  of  his  person,  or  even  to  death 
itself,  in  defence  of  this  glorious  Union,  is  not  worthy 
of  the  name  of  an  American  citizen ! 

I  am  a  native  of  Virginia ;  I  was  born  and  raised  in 
the  Old  Dominion,  as  were  my  parents  before  me.  They 
were,  on  both  sides,  slave-holders.  I  have  lived  for 
the  last  thirty  years  in  East  Tennessee,  where  I  married, 
and  where  both  my  wife  and  children  were  born.  I 
am  perhaps  the  only  man  who  ever  did,  or  ever  will, 

35 


408  BEOWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

appear  before  a  Cincinnati  audience  publicly  confessing 
that  he  descended  from  one  of  the  second  families  of 
Virginia.  All  others  are  descended  from  the  F.  F.  Vs., 
which,  since  their  numerous  retreats  before  Rosecrans 
and  others,  signifies  Fleet- Footed  Virginians  !  By 
the  way,  Floyd  and  I  hail  from  the  same  county.  I 
have  endeavored  to  be  honest  all  my  life,  and  remained 
poor.  Floyd  was  a  good  financier,  whether  you  view 
him  as  Governor  of  Virginia  or  Secretary  of  War  under 
James  Buchanan,  and  he  has  money  and  to  spare. 

Since  this  rebellion  commenced,  I  have  been  held  up 
to  the  world  in  the  corrupt  and  pensioned  journals  of 
the  Southern  Confederacy  as  a  traitor  to  the  South  and 
the  descendant  of  a  Tory.  I  complain  of  this  charge, 
when  I  reflect  that  my  father  was  a  private  in  the  War 
of  1812  under  General  Jackson.  One  of  his  brothers — • 
the  one  after  whom  I  was  named — was  a  naval  officer, 
and  his  honored  remains  sleep  in  the  navy-yard  at 
Norfolk.  Another  brother  was  a  lieutenant  in  the 
navy,  and  died  in  New  Orleans  while  in  the  service. 
A  third  brother  of  his  died  at  sea  while  in  the  service, 
and  was  given  to  the  monsters  of  the  deep.  A  fourth 
was  among  the  first  men  who  scaled  the  walls  at  the 
memorable  battle  of  the  Horseshoe.  On  my  mother's  side 
my  relatives  were  in  the  battles  of  their  country,  and  not 
a  few  lost  their  lives  defending  the  flag  of  their  country, 
fighting  for  the  United  States  against  the  combined 
assaults  of  our  British  and  savage  foes.  They  did  not 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  409 

fight  for  a  section,  either  North  or  South,  but  for  our 
common  country, — for  the  American  Union, — and  died 
beneath  the  folds  of  the  Star-Spangled  Banner,  the 
sacred  shield  of  a  common  nationality. 

I  am  not  before  you  on  this  occasion  to  revive  old 
party  political  prejudices,  but  I  may  as  well  make  a 
remark  or  so  upon  the  subject  of  party  politics.  In 
Tennessee  we  have  done  what  you  ought  to  do  here, 
— merged  all  party  questions  into  the  great  question  of 
preserving  the  Union  and  crushing  out  this  infamous 
rebellion.  I  claim  to  be  an  unconditional  Union  man; 
and  before  I  would  vote  for  a  man  who  is  not,  I  would 
see  him,  in  the  language  of  Milton,  "  where  cold  per- 
forms the  effect  of  fire."  Nay,  in  the  still  more  nervous 
language  of  Pollok,  I  would  see  him  "  Where  gravita- 
tion, shifting,  turns  the  other  way,"  and  sends  the 
parties  in  the  direction  that  Ward's  ducks  went. 

I  have  battled  against  Andrew  Johnson,  perseveringly, 
systematically,  and  terribly,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
He  has  basted  me  on  every  stump  in  Tennessee.  We 
have  each  given  the  other  as  good  as  he  sent.  Honors 
are  easy  with  us  now,  and  we  are  hand-in-hand  fighting 
the  same  battle  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  We 
will  fight  for  each  other  against  the  common  foe.  He 
is  now  at  the  head  of  our  new  State  Government;  and 
I  take  pleasure  in  saying  that  he  is  the  right  man  in 
the  right  place.  If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  asked  the  Union 
men  of  Tennessee  whom  they  wanted  for  a  military 


410  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Governor,  the  answer  would  have  been,  Andrew 
Johnson ! 

It  is  no  new  thing  with  me  that  I  am  a  Union  man, 
for  I  have  been  that  all  my  life  long.  I  was  living  in 
the  counties  of  Pickens  and  Anderson,  South  Carolina, 
— the  latter  the  home  of  John  C.  Calhoun, — in  1832, 
during  the  Nullification  Eebellion.  I  declared  for  the 
Union  then, — wrote  a  pamphlet  in  which  I  denounced 
Disunion  and  defended  the  proclamation  of  General 
Jackson. 

I  commenced  my  political  career  in  1828,  when  I  was 
one  of  a  corporal's  guard  who  got  up  an  Electoral  ticket 
for  John  Quincy  Adams  against  Andrew  Jackson.  I 
name  this  fact  to  show  that  I  have  never  been  sectional, 
but  always  national,  supporting  men  of  integrity  and 
talents,  without  looking  to  which  side  of  the  line  they 
were  born.  I  was  for  Adams  because  of  his  talents 
and  pure  moral  character,  and  last,  but  not  least,  be- 
cause of  his  Federal  politics.  I  have  always  been  a 
Federal  Whig  of  the  Alexander  Hamilton  and  George 
Washington  school, — believing  in  a  strong  central  or 
concentrated  Government,  strong  enough  to  sustain 
itself  and  to  put  down  all  such  infamous  rebellions  as 
this  is.  Though  I  was  opposed  to  Jackson,  I  would 
have  resurrected  him,  if  I  could  have  done  so,  two  years 
ago,  and  placed  him  in  the  chair  disgraced  by  that 
mockery  of  a  man,  Buchanan,  and  had  him  to  crush  out 
this  rebellion.  Jackson  was  a  true  patriot,  and  a  lover  of 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  411 

his  country,  and  a  Union  man ;  and  if  he  had  been  living 
when  this  rebellion  broke  out,  he  would  have  hanged 
the  leaders  and  prevented  this  unnatural  war. 

In  1832, 1  was  for  Clay  for  the  Presidency ;  in  1836, 
I  was  for  Hugh  Lawson  White,  who  was  beaten  by  Mr. 
Van  Buren;  in  1840,  I  was  a  zealous  supporter  of 
General  Harrison,  of  Ohio,  a  true  man  and  a  tried 
patriot ;  in  1844,  I  supported  Clay  and  Frelinghuysen ; 
in  1848,  I  supported  Taylor  and  Fillmore ;  in  1852,  I 
was  for  Daniel  Webster,  but  he  was  not  the  candidate, 
and  died  before  the  election  came  off;  in  1856,  I  was 
for  Fillmore  and  Donelson ;  in  1860, 1  was  for  Bell  and 
Everett,  and  I  am  for  the  hind-legs  of  this  kangaroo 
ticket  yet.  A  better  or  a  more  nobly  disinterested  man 
than  Everett  never  lived.  Bell  has  gone  over  to  Seces- 
sion ;  but  he  is  at  heart  a  Union  man,  and  only  yielded 
on  account  of  the  great  pressure,  which  but  few  of  our 
Union  leaders  found  themselves  able  openly  to  resist. 

And  now  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  subject  of 
Slavery,  the  great  topic  of  the  day.  I  have  no  senti- 
ments at  the  South  that  I  do  not  hold  here.  I  have  no 
sentiments  here  that  I  do  not  entertain  when  I  am  in 
Tennessee.  I  should  despise  myself,  and  merit  your 
scorn  and  contempt,  if  I  held  one  set  of  opinions  at  the 
North  and  another  set  at  the  South.  I  have  for  years 
been  publishing  my  sentiments  upon  the  Slavery  ques- 
tion, and  I  have  only  to  say  to-night  that  they  have 
undergone  no  change. 

35* 


412 


The  South,  as  I  have  repeatedly  published  there,  is 
more  to  blame  for  this  state  of  things  than  the  North. 
The  South  brought  on  this  war  without  any  just  cause. 
We  had  a  Presidential  election,  and  we  had  four  differ- 
ent tickets  in  the  field,  the  meanest  and  most  unpa- 
triotic of  which  was  the  JBrecJcinridge  ticket.  In  a  fair 
and  open-handed  race,  under  the  forms  of  law  and  of 
the  Constitution,  without  violence,  the  Lincoln  ticket 
was  chosen ;  and  it  was  the  duty  of  every  good  citizen 
to  submit  to  the  will  of  the  people,  thus  expressed.  But 
the  South  lost  the  spoils,  and  her  corrupt  and  design- 
ing men  determined  to  overthrow  the  Government  and 
to  erect  a  new  Confederacy,  where  they  could  get 
offices.  "We  of  the  South  have  had  the  Presidency 
twice  to  your  once  since  the  formation  of  the  Govern- 
ment. We  have  even  re-elected  five  of  our  men  to 
a  second  term,  while  no  Northern  man  ever  was  re- 
elected.  Besides  this,  we  have  used  two  or  three  of 
your  Northern  Presidents.  We  had  a  fugitive-slave 
law  enacted  to  suit  our  wants ;  we  annexed  Texas  that 
we  might  have  more  slave-territory;  and  we  repealed 
the  Missouri  Compromise  Line, — a  thing  that  ought 
never  to  have  been  done,  and  a  measure  I  opposed  to 
the  bitter  end.  All  this  ought  to  have  satisfied  us  of 
the  South ;  but  no,  we  were  for  breaking  up  the  Gov- 
ernment. Pryor,  one  of  the  gang,  telegraphed  from 
Washington,  "  We  can  get  the  Crittenden  Compromise, 
but  we  don't  want  it."  Judge  Douglas  overheard  and 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  413 

exposed  Mason  in  the  Senate  for  saying,  "  No  matter 
what  compromise  the  North  offers,  the  South  must  find 
a  way  to  defeat  it." 

If,  then,  the  South,  in  her  madness  and  folly,  will 
make  the  issue  of  "No  Union  and  Slavery,  or  no  Sla- 
very and  a  Union,"  I  am  for  the  Union,  though  every 
institution  in  the  country  perish.  And  if  I  had  been 
authorized,  some  two  or  three  years  ago,  to  select  about 
two  or  three  hundred  of  your  most  abominable  anti- 
Slavery  agitators  in  the  North,  and  an  equal  number 
of  our  God-forsaken  and  most  hell-deserving  Disunionists 
at  the  South,  and  had  marched  them  to  the  District  of 
Columbia,  hanged  them  on  a  common  gallows,  dug  for 
them  a  common  grave,  and  embalmed  their  bodies  with 
jimson-weed  and  dog-fennel,  there  would  have  been  none 
of  this  trouble,  nor  should  I  have  been  here  to-night ! 

Let  the  Federal  Government  now  guarantee  to 
all  loyal  men  in  seceded  States  the  right  and  title  to 
all  their  property,  including  negroes,  and  protect  them 
in  the  enjoyment  of  the  same  ;  but  let  the  title  held  by 
rebels  seeking  to  destroy  the  Government  be  annihi- 
lated, both  as  to  negroes  and  all  other  property.  And 
I  trust  in  God  that  it  will  be  done,  and  that  such  con- 
fiscated property  will  go  to  make  up  the  losses  of  loyal 
men. 

When  this  war  was  commenced,  we  were  all  told 
at  the  South  that  the  Federal  soldiers  were  coming 
among  us  to  run  off  our  negroes.  Some  Southern 


414  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

cavalry  came  along  one  Sabbath,  and  pitched  in  and 
stole  a  valuable  boy  from  me,  worth  about  one  thousand 
dollars,  and  they  now  have  him  in  camp,  in  full  uni- 
form. I  would  have  expected  this  from  Lincoln's 
hordes,  but  would  not  have  expected  it  from  the  chi- 
valry of  the  South !  the  flower  of  the  Southern  youth ! 
The  truth  is,  they  have  regularly- trained  bands  of 
negro-stealers  and  negro-traders  following  the  Southern 
army,  and  these  have  already  stolen  more  negroes  from 
the  border  States  in  one  year  than  all  the  Northern 
Abolitionists  have  stolen  in  forty  years ! 

About  twelve  months  ago,  a  stream  of  Secession  fire, 
red  and  angry,  and  almost  as  hot  as  hell,  came  along 
from  the  South  through  Knoxville.  Then  it  was  that 
the  Kebel  soldiers,  made  mad  by  bad  whiskey,  visited 
the  houses  of  Union  men  in  Knoxville,  and  insulted 
and  abused  the  inmates ;  and  my  humble  dwelling  was 
honored — if  honor  it  be — by  these  soldiers. 

At  the  same  time  I  was  reading  in  my  exchanges 
from  Mobile  and  Charleston  that  they  had  been  com- 
pelled to  send  the  flower  of  the  South  to  defend  the 
border  States.  I  said  to  my  wife,  "  If  these  soldiers 
be  the  flower  of  the  South,  God  deliver  us  from  the 
rabble  !"  They  became  more  and  more  insulting,  until 
in  May  and  June  they  commenced  shooting  down  and 
hanging  the  Union  men.  One  man  named  Douglas 
raised  a  pole  and  ran  up  the  Stars  and  Stripes:  for 
this  he  was  shot  down.  The  work  of  murder  and 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  415 

slaughter  went  on,  and  they  became  so  overbearing 
that  a  number  of  us  had  to  flee  to  the  mountains. 

I  cannot  boast  of  my  courage,  but  I  believe  I  was 
never  accused  of  personal  cowardice.  They  seized  my 
printing-office,  and  converted  it  into  a  shop  in  which 
to  repair  old  muskets,  which  the  thief  Floyd  stole  from 
the  Government.  After  taking  possession  of  my  office, 
I  was  out  of  employment.  One  regiment  located  in 
the  town  had  decided  to  tear  down  my  dwelling,  and 
the  plans  were  all  ready.  General  Zollicoffer  was  in- 
formed of  the  facts,  and  issued  orders  forbidding  any 
of  his  soldiers  to  go  outside  of  their  lines.  He  also 
sent  a  detachment  of  two  hundred  men  to  surround  and 
protect  my  house.  Many  said  he  had  done  an  act 
worthy  of  great  credit,  but  I  believe  he  did  no  more  than 
his  duty.  I  knew  him  for  twenty-five  years :  he  was 
a  high-toned,  honest,  and  brave  man.  He  never  stooped 
to  any  thing  low ;  and  the  only  mean  thing  that  he  ever 
did,  that  I  am  aware  of,  was  to  fight  in  such  a  cause  as 
that  in  which  the  South  is  now  engaged. 

My  family  urged  me,  with  tears  and  entreaties,  to 
leave  home,  and  to  gratify  my  wife  and  children  I  did 
so.  About  that  time  there  was  an  election  for  Presi- 
dent and  Vice-President.  The  ticket  got  only  25,000 
votes  in  a  State  that  has  given  150,000  votes.  In  East 
Tennessee  the  Union  sheriffs  refused  to  open  the  polls. 
Judge  Swan,  the  member  of  the  Confederate  Congress 
from  the  Knoxville  district,  had  but  700  votes,  while 


416  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

the  same  district  has  given  Horace  Maynard  12,000 
votes.  After  Johnson  and  Maynard  left,  I  was  the  only 
leader  left  in  Knoxville, — only  a  second  or  third  rate 
one  at  that.  Mounting  an  old  iron-gray  horse  one 
day,  with  a  few  friends,  we — as  the  Secessionists  say 
when  beaten  by  the  Union  army — we  retired.  I  re- 
tired, gentlemen.  [Laughter.]  We  made  up  a  company 
of  twelve  persons,  and  retired  into  the  Smoky  Moun- 
tains, which  divide  Tennessee  from  North  Carolina, 
and  in  the  month  of  November  we  lay  out  days  and 
nights.  We  had  taken  some  bread  and  meat;  and 
when  our  provisions  gave  out  we  killed  a  black  bear 
and  some  turkeys.  We  had  friends  who  came  to  us 
every  few  days  and  informed  us  as  to  what  was  going 
on.  We  learned  that  the  commanding  officer  had 
detailed  four  squads  of  cavalry,  and  their  public  in- 
structions were  not  to  take  us,  but  to  shoot  us  on  sight. 

In  some  mysterious  way,  one  Saturday  night  about 
eleven  o'clock,  five  bridges  on  the  main  line  of  railroad, 
some  miles  apart,  were  set  fire  to,  and  were  in  ashes 
by  daylight  the  next  morning.  This  put  the  very 
devil  in  the  Secessionists,  although  he  had  been  in 
their  midst  all  the  while. 

This  burning  of  bridges  was  all  wrong,  as  it  could 
serve  no  other  purpose  than  that  of  setting  the  authori- 
ties upon  Union  men.  'The  bridges  ought  to  have  been 
destroyed  a  year  ago,  but  not  when  they  were  fired. 

Mganwhile,  the  Kebels — largely  reinforced  from  the 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  417 

Cotton  States — went  to  work  and  deprived  the  Union 
men  of  their  guns,  pistols,  and  knives,  and  cast  many 
of  them  into  the  county  prisons.  Now  the  reign  of 
terror  set  in.  Houses  were  plundered,  stock  killed 
before  the  eyes  of  the  owners,  and  horses  taken.  I 
could  give  the  names  and  localities  of  men  shot  down 
in  their  fields  for  no  other  offence  than  that  they 
were  Union  men. 

Returning  to  the  vicinity  of  Knoxville,  I  received  a 
letter  from  General  George  B.  Crittenden,  stating  that 
he  had  been  ordered  by  the  Confederate  Secretary  of 
War  to  give  me  a  passport  beyond  the  Confederate 
lines  into  the  State  of  Kentucky,  to  a  Union  neigh- 
borhood. I  accepted  the  general's  proffer,  but  was 
immediately  arrested  on  a  charge  of  treason,  for  writing 
and  publishing  what  had  appeared  in  the  Knoxville 
Whig.  On  the  6th  of  December  I  was  thrust  into  the 
Knoxville  jail.  I  found  in  the  jail  one  hundred  and  fifty 
Union  men, — the  building  crowded  to  overflowing. 
Every  man  confined  was  a  personal  friend.  They 
crowded  around  me  in  astonishment,  and  asked  what  I 
was  thrown  into  prison  for.  Some  of  them  shed  tears, 
others  smiled,  when  they  saw  me  enter  the  iron  gates. 
I  told  them  I  was  under  arrest  for  treason  on  a  warrant 
just  issued. 

PRISON-SCENES. 

In  that  dirty  prison  we  were  so  crowded  that  but 
two-thirds  of  our  company  could  lie  down,  and  there 


418  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

was  neither  bench,  chair,  block,  nor  other  thing,  to  sit 
or  lie  upon.  As  a  consequence,  many  took  cold  and 
were  sick.  A  wooden  bucket  and  a  couple  of  tin  cups, 
out  of  which  we  drank,  were  all  the  furniture  we  had. 
In  five  weeks  I  was  myself  prostrated,  and  had  to  be 
removed. 

Among  the  inmates  were  three  Baptist  preachers. 
One  of  them, — Mr.  Pope, — seventy-seven  years  of  age, 
was  charged  with  having  prayed  to  the  Lord  to  bless 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  to  bless  the  Gene- 
ral Government,  and  to  put  an  end  to  this  unholy  war. 
Another  old  man, — Mr.  Gate, — a  minister,  seventy-five 
years  of  age,  was  thrust  into  jail  for  having  thrown 
up  his  hat  and  hurrahed  for  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
when  a  company  of  Union  Home-Guards  marched  by 
his  house  with  the  Union  flag  flying  over  them.  The 
third — a  young  man — was  confined  for  having  volun- 
teered as  chaplain  of  a  Union  regiment. 

WILLIAM   HENRY   HARRISON   SELF. 

The  most  affecting  case,  however,  was  that  of  an  old 
man  who,  after  a  lengthy  incarceration,  was  told,  one 
morning,  that  he  had  been  sentenced  to  be  hung  at 
four  o'clock  that  afternoon.  His  name  was  William 
Henry  Harrison  Self.  His  daughter,  an  intelligent  and 
well-educated  lady,  hearing  this  awful  news  during  the 
day,  hastened  to  the  jail,  and,  with  great  difficulty, 
obtained  permission  to  visit  the  condemned  man.  The 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  419 

meeting  of  the  father  and  daughter  was  a  scene  which 
drew  tears  from  the  eyes  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  men 
long  used  to  hardship  and  suffering.  The  father  and 
daughter  embraced  and  kissed  each  other,  neither  of 
them  able  to  utter  a  word  for  some  time.  At  about  one 
o'clock  the  young  lady  asked  me  to  write,  in  her  name, 
a  dispatch  to  Jeff  Davis,  at  Eichmond,  asking  him  to 
grant  a  pardon  to  her  father,  which  I  did. 

The  young  lady  carried  the  dispatch  to  the  tele- 
graph-office, on  Gay  Street,  in  great  haste,  and  had  it 
sent  to  Eichmond  immediately.  Shortly  before  three 
o'clock  she  received  an  answer  from  "  President"  Davis, 
commuting  the  old  man's  sentence  to  imprisonment  for 
such  length  of  time  as  the  commanding  general  should 
see  proper.  The  joy  of  his  daughter  was,  of  course, 
unbounded.  When  I  left  Knoxville,  on  the  3d  of  March, 
Self  was  still  in  jail. 

Old  Mr.  Gate  had  three  sons  in  jail.  Madison  Gate 
was  on  the  verge  of  the  grave  with  typhoid  fever.  He 
lay  upon  the  floor  of  that  damp  prison,  with  an  old 
overcoat  under  his  head  for  a  pillow,  and  a  single 
thickness  of  old  home-made  carpeting  between  him 
and  the  cold,  damp  floor.  In  this  condition  his  poor 
wife  came  twenty-five  miles  to  see  him,  with  an  in- 
fant about  six  weeks  old  in  her  arms.  She  came  into 
the  yard  of  the  prison  and  asked  permission  to  see  her 
husband.  The  officer  said,  "No!  they  did  not  allow 
anybody  to  have  any  thing  to  say  to  these  infernal 

36 


420  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Union-shriekers."  I  went  to  the  window  then,  myself, 
and,  by  dint  of  perseverance,  prevailed  upon  them  at 
last  to  let  her  see  her  husband.  They  limited  her  to 
just  twenty  minutes.  When  she  entered  the  door,  her 
eyes  fell  upon  her  husband  lying  in  the  corner,  so  weak 
and  emaciated  that  he  could  scarcely  stir.  He  was 
nearly  gone.  She  held  her  infant  in  her  arms.  The 
sight  of  her  husband  in  that  condition  unnerved  her 
completely.  Seeing  that  she  was  upon  the  point  of  let- 
ting the  child  fall,  I  took  it  from  her,  and  she  sank  down 
upon  the  floor  beside  her  husband.  Neither  of  them 
uttered  a  word,  but,  clasping  each  other's  hands,  they 
sobbed  and  cried  together ;  and  oh,  my  God !  I  hope 
that  I  shall  never  see  such  a  sight  as  that  again. 

That,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  is  the  spirit,  the  hellish, 
inhuman,  infernal  spirit,  of  Secession.  The  devil  him- 
self is  a  saint,  compared  to  the  leaders  in  that  scheme. 

In  Andrew  Johnson's  town  they  hung  up  two  men 
to  the  same  limb,  and  the  bloody  Colonel  Leadbetter, — 
a  man  born  and  educated  in  the  State  of  Maine,  who  went 
down  to  Mobile  and  married  a  lot  of  negroes,  through  one 
white  woman, — the  worst  man,  the  greatest  coward, 
and  the  blackest-hearted  villain  that  ever  made  a  track 
in  East  Tennessee, — this  man  tied  the  knots  with  his 
own  hands,  and  directed  that  the  bodies  of  the  victims 
should  be  left  hanging  for  four  days  and  nights  directly 
over  the  iron  track  of  the  railroad,  and  ordered  the 
engineers  to  run  their  trains  slowly  by  the  spot,  in 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  421 

order  that  the  Secessionists  on  board  might  feast  their 
eyes  upon  the  ghastly  spectacle.  And  it  is  a  fact,  as  true 
as  it  is  revolting,  that  men  stood  upon  the  platforms  of 
every  train  that  went  by,  kicked  the  dead  bodies  as 
they  passed,  and  struck  them  with  sticks  and  rattans, — 
with  such  remarks  as  "that  they  looked  well  hanging 

there,"  and  that  all  "  d d  Yankees  and  traitors  should 

hang  that  way  too."  It  is  true  that  Colonel  Lead- 
better,  as  the  weather  was  somewhat  warm  and  the 
corpses  were  becoming  somewhat  offensive,  ordered 
them  to  be  cut  down  at  the  expiration  of  some  thirty- 
six  hours;  but  it  was  for  the  convenience  of  his  Seces- 
sion friends  purely,  and  not  from  any  other  motive. 

One  day  they  came  with  two  carts  and  took  old 
Harmon — a  Methodist  class-leader — and  his  son.  Old 
Mr.  Harmon  was  seated  in  one  cart  upon  his  coffin,  and 
his  son  in  the  other,  and  each  cart  was  surrounded  by 
a  strong  guard  of  Kebel  bayonets  and  driven  down  the 
hill  to  a  scaffold.  The  young  man  was  hung  first,  and 
the  father  was  compelled  to  look  upon  his  death- 
struggles.  Then  he  was  told  to  mount  the  scaffold; 
but,  being  feeble  and  overpowered  by  his  feelings,  two 
of  the  ruffians  took  hold  of  him,  one  of  them  saying, 
"Get  up  there,  you  damned  old  traitor !"  and  the  poor 
old  man  was  launched  into  eternity  after  his  son. 

A  few  days  after  this,  they  came  up  to  the  jail  with 
another  cart.  "We  never  knew  whose  turn  was  to  come 
next.  I  had  "counted  the  cost."  I  intended,  if  my 


422  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

turn  had  come,  to  meet  my  fate  with  the  best  grace  I 
could.  I  had  prepared  a  speech  for  the  occasion;  and 
I  can  assure  you  that  I  should  have  pronounced  a 
handsome  eulogy,  if  I  had  been  called  upon;  for,  if  I 
have  any  talent  in  the  world,  it  is  that  talent  which 
consists  in  piling  up  one  epithet  upon  another.  But  it 
turned  out  that  the  cart  was  not  intended  for  me.  It 
was  intended  for  a  young  man  by  the  name  of  C.  A. 
Haun,  an  excellent  man,  of  fine  morals  and  good  com- 
mon sense.  He  had  a  wife  and  two  small  children. 
Haun  was  informed  one  hour  beforehand  that  he  was 
to  be  hung.  He  immediately  asked  for  a  Methodist 
preacher,  who  lived  in  the  town,  to  come  and  see  him 
and  to  pray  with  him. 

The  reply  was,  "We  don't  permit  any  praying  here 
for  a  damned  Union-shrieker."  Haun  met  his  fate  like 
a  man. 

My  fellow-citizens,  I  congratulate  you  upon  the 
fact — now  sufficiently  clear — that  this  rebellion  is  now 
pretty  well  "  played  out."  We  will  wind  the  thing  up 
this  spring  and  summer.  They  are  nearly  "out  of 
soap"  down  South.  They  lack  guns,  clothing,  boots, 
and  shoes.  The  boots  I  have  on  cost  me  fifteen  dollars 
in  Knoxville.  They  are  out  of  hats,  too.  In  Knox- 
ville  there  is  not  a  bolt  of  bleached  domestic  or  calico 
to  be  had, nor  a  spool  of  Coates's  thread;  and,  although 
"Cotton  is  King,"  we  never  made  a  spool  of  thread 
south  of  Mason  &  Dixon's  line.  Sewing-needles  and 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  423 

pins  are  not  to  be  had.  The  blockade  is  breaking  up 
the  whole  South.  It  has  been  remarked  on  the  streets 
of  Knoxville  that  no  such  thing  as  a  fine-toothed  comb 
was  to  be  had,  and  all  the  little  Secession  heads  were 
full  of  squatter  sovereigns  hunting  for  their  rights  in 
the  territories.  [Laughter  and  applause.] 

General  S.  F.  Carey,  of  Ohio,  and  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor Fisk,  of  Kentucky,  delivered  brief,  but  eloquent 
and  appropriate,  speeches  after  me.  The  President 
offered  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions,  express- 
ive of  the  sentiment  of  the  meeting;  and,  on  motion, 
they  were  unanimously  adopted  by  a  deafening  AY  : — 

"  Whereas,  The  foundations  of  this  republic  were 
established  in  wisdom,  justice,  and  virtue,  by  men  of 
courage,  intelligence,  and  patriotism/  against  the  Gov- 
ernment of  which  a  causeless  and  wicked  rebellion 
has  been  instigated  by  unprincipled  demagogues,  to 
advance  their  political  schemes  at  the  expense  of  public 
liberty;  and 

"  Whereas,  We  believe  that  no  Government  can  be 
formed  more  conducive  to  the  happiness  and  prosperity 
of  the  people,  or  which  can  give  greater  security  to 
life,  liberty,  and  property :  therefore,  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  we,  a  part  of  the  free  people  of  this 
nation,  will  never  cease  our  efforts  until  the  last  vestige 
of  treason  shall  have  been  effaced  from  the  land,  and 
the  principles  of  Washington  and  his  illustrious  com- 
peers immediately  established. 

"Resolved,  That  we  will  stand  upon  the  Union  as  our 
platform,  and  claim  that  the  unity  of  the  Government 
is  essential  to  its  preservation  and  to  the  liberties  of 
the  people;  that  we  are  entitled  to  the  whole  area 
embraced  by  the  thirty-four  States  and  the  territorial 

36* 


424  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

domain,  not  alienating  one  inch  of  its  soil  one  moment 
of  time,  being  in  its  political  and  commercial  relations 
the  common  property  of  all  the  loyal  citizens  of  the 
Union ;  that  we  claim  the  present  Constitution  as  the 
sovereign  and  fundamental  law  of  the  land,  subject  to 
no  change  or  abatement  except  by  the  will  of  the  people 
through  their  constitutional  representation;  that  we 
repudiate  any  terms  with  traitors;  that  we  estimate 
neutrality,  in  its  application  to  the  present  rebellion,  as 
synonymous  with  treason. 

"  That  no  loyal  citizen  can  remain  neutral  while  foreign 
or  domestic  enemies  of  his  country  assail  its  Constitu- 
tion and  laws,  and  that  we  demand  a  vigorous  and  un- 
ceasing prosecution  of  the  war,  and  a  certain  punish- 
ment of  all  the  leading  traitors,  enforcing  the  doctrine 
of  the  immortal  Clay, — '  that  we  owe  a  paramount  alle- 
giance to  the  whole  Union,  a  subordinate  one  to  the 
several  States.' 

"Resolved,  That  the  blood  of  the  patriots  of  the  Re- 
volution, and  of  Ellsworth,  Lyon,  Winthrop,  Baker, 
Lander,  McCrea,  Whitcom,  and  Budd,  and  of  the  host 
of  heroes  in  the  present  war,  both  on  sea  and  land, 
whose  bravery  has  added  fresh  lustre  to  our  country's 
history,  together  with  the  martyrs  who  have  illustrated 
their  devotion  to  the  Constitution  by  the  sacrifice  of 
their  lives  on  the  altar  of  freedom,  has  indissolubly 
cemented  the  union  of  the  States,  and  forever  endeared 
it  to  the  hearts  of  a  gratified  people,  who  can  never 
forget  the  debt  of  justice  they  owe  to  the  widows  and 
orphans  of  the  illustrious  dead. 

"Resolved,  That  the -flag  of  the  nation  shall  again  float 
triumphantly  from  the  walls  of  Sumter,  and  from  every 
other  fort  belonging  to  the  Union ;  that  the  mouths  of 
the  Mississippi  shall  never  be  closed  against  the  com- 
merce of  the  great  Northwest,  or  be  subjected  to  the 
laws  of  any  foreign  or  rebellious  power ;  and  that  no 
interference  with  the  rights  of  the  whole  people  to  the 
free  use  of  all  the  avenues  of  commerce,  throughout 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  425 

the  length,  and  breadth  of  the  land,  will  ever  be  tole- 
rated. 

"And  be  it  further  resolved.  That  we  recognize  in  the 
Px,ev.  W.  G.  Brownlow  the  true  patriot,  the  intrepid  and 
unflinching  defender  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  as 
the  representative  of  that  band  of  true  men  in  the 
South  who,  in  the  midst  of  an  atrocious  rebellion,  still 
assert  their  ancient  loyalty  and  devotion  to  the  Union. 

"Resolved,  That  he  has  fixed  the  true  standard  of 
patriotism  for  all  in  the  present  crisis, — viz. :  an  unhesi- 
tating sacrifice  of  private  interest,  in  the  hope  of  an 
early  peace,  and,  if  necessary,  of  loved  institutions,  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  Constitution,  without  further 
compromises,  and  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war, 
until  the  authority  of  the  Federal  Government  shall 
be  fully  established  in  every  insurgent  State,  every 
armed  rebel  disarmed  and  every  leader  punished. 

"Resolved,  That  our  warmest  sympathies  are  with  our 
distinguished  guest,  as  we  reach  across  the  border  our 
hands  to  our  loyal  brethren  of  the  South,  especially  to 
those  of  East  Tennessee,  greeting  them  as  friends 
engaged  in  the  same  holy  cause ;  and  we  call  upon  the 
Federal  Government  to  afford  them  speedy  relief,  so  as 
not  only  to  exhibit  the  high  appreciation  of  their  con- 
stancy and  patriotism  in  the  midst  of  unparalleled 
suffering,  peril,  and  persecution,  which  is  entertained 
by  the  whole  people  of  the  loyal  States,  but  also  as  a 
sacred  duty  due  unto  the  Constitution  and  to  all  loyal 
men  of  the  South." 

The  exercises  were  ciosed  by  the  singing  of  "  Hail 
Columbia." 

Indianapolis,  April  9. — General  Carey  arid  I  ad- 
dressed a  large  audience  here  last  night,  having  come 
from  Dayton,  where  we  spoke  the  night  before.  We 
were  the  guests  of  Governor  Morton,  who  is  a  true 


426  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

man,  and  has  done  great  service  for  the  country  during 
this  rebellion.  The  "  Metropolitan  Hall"  in  this  city, 
it  is  said,  was  never  better  filled. 

Governor  Morton  took  us  in  his  carriage  to  see  the 
prisoners  in  Camp  Morton, — some  five  thousand  of 
them.  I  found  the  Tennesseeans  glad  to  see  me,  and 
made  them  a  brief  speech;  but  the  Kentucky  and 
Alabama  Eebels  gave  me  no  very  graceful  reception, 
crying,  "  Put  him  out!"  "  Don't  want  him  here!" 
"  Traitor  to  the  South  !"  &c. 

Chicago,  April  11. — The  citizens  of  Chicago  having 
adopted  the  following  complimentary  preamble  and  re- 
solution, I  could  do  nothing  less  than  visit  their  great 
and  growing  commercial  emporium  : — 


" '  Whereas,  The  citizens  of  Chicago,  and  of  every 
loyal  city  and  State,  have  watched  with  anxiety  the  in- 
dependent, manly,  and  patriotic  course  during  the  past 
year  of  the  Kev.  William  G.  Brownlow,  of  Tennessee ; 
and, 

" t  Whereas,  His  position  upon  the  grand  and  moment- 
ous issue  that  has  nearly  broken  to  fragments  and  rent 
in  twain  our  beloved  country  has  commanded  the  ad- 
miration and  gratitude  of  every  loyal  citizen,  in  sup- 
porting and  maintaining  the  flag  of  our  country,  in  an 
enemy's  land,  even  at  the  peril  of  his  life  and  the  sacri- 
fice of  all  its  comforts  ;  and, 

" '  Whereas,  We  have  heard  with  great  pleasure  that 
he  is  to  be  in  our  city  the  present  week,  thus  giving 
our  citizens  an  opportunity  of  hearing  the  voice  and 
words  of  the  patriot,  and  of  testifying  their  appre- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  427 

elation  of  the  man  who  has  suffered  every  thing  but 
death  in  defending  our  Constitution  :  therefore, 

" ' Resolved,  That  a  special  committee  of  three  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  Mayor,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to  make 
such  arrangements  as  may  be  necessary  in  order  that 
the  hospitalities  of  the  city  be  tendered  to  Eev.  W.  (r. 
Brownlow  upon  his  arrival  and  during  his  stay  here.' 

"On  motion  of  Alderman  Comisky,  the  resolution 
was  adopted  unanimously. 

"  The  Mayor  appointed  Aldermen  Hoyt,  Hubbard,  and 
Salomon,  as  a  committee  to  carry  into  effect  the  reso- 
lution of  Alderman  Hoyt. 

"On  motion,  the  Mayor  was  added  to  the  committee." 

To  this  committee  were  added  other  gentlemen  by  the 
Commercial  Exchange ;  and  these  met  me  at  Michigan 
City,  where  I  was  welcomed  by  their  chairman,  Judge 
Drummond,  of  the  Federal  Court,  in  a  complimentary 
speech. 

My  first  day  in  Chicago  was  spent  in  visiting  Camp 
Douglas,  where  I  found  five  thousand  more  prisoners, 
many  of  them  from  Tennessee.  They  were  glad  to 
see  me,  and  I  made  them  a  brief  speech.  When  I 
announced  to  them  that  Tennessee  would  vote  herself 
back  into  the  Union  again,  they  cried  out,  "  We  Ten- 
nessee prisoners  would  vote  the  State  back  now,  if  it 
were  left  to  us  !"  Poor  fellows !  I  felt  sorry  for  them, 
because  I  knew  they  were  mostly  Union  men,  but  had 
been  deceived  by  the  Secession  leaders  of  the  State. 

At  one  o'clock  I  visited  the  Merchants'  Exchange, 
where  General  Carey  and  I  addressed  the  Board  of 


428  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

Trade.  Mayor  Eamsey  introduced  me  to  the  immense 
throng,  when  J.  C.  Wright,  Esq.,  on  behalf  of  the  Board, 
addressed  me  thus  : — 

"  EEV.  W.  G-.  BROWNLOW  : — At  the  request  of  the 
officers  of  this  Board  of  Trade,  I  have  the  honor,  sir, 
of  performing  the  most  agreeable  duty  of  welcoming 
you  to  our  Exchange. 

"  It  is  not,  sir,  because  of  any  official  position  you  now 
hold,  or  have  held,  that  this  vast  assembly  has  gath- 
ered here  to  receive  you ;  but,  sir,  it  is  a  mark  of  respect 
and  admiration  for  your  patriotic  devotion  to  your 
country.  When  this  horrid  rebellion  assumed  its  gigan- 
tic proportions,  the  loyal  men  of  the  North  watched 
with  anxiety  the  course  of  many  men  of  the  South 
whom  we  had  delighted  to  honor  with  the  highest  posi- 
tions of  trust  and  power.  With  rare  exceptions,  we 
saw  them  retreating  into  the  ranks  of  the  traitors,  using 
their  influence,  wealth,  and  position  to  strike  down  the 
mildest  and  most  beneficent  Government  which  God  in 
his  mercy  had  ever  permitted  man  to  establish.  They 
beguiled  and  deceived  the  people  who  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  look  up  to  them  and  listen  to  their  counsels. 
Many  of  the  arch-traitors,  not  content  to  act  with  the 
popular  voice  of  their  States,  joined  the  ranks  of  the 
Rebels,  endeavoring  to  force  their  States  to  disregard 
their  allegiance  to  that  glorious  Union  which  for  nearly 
a  century  had  thrown  its  genial  influence  and  protec- 
tion over  a  united,  happy,  and  prosperous  people.  Amidst 
all  this  horrid  exhibition  of  treason  and  malignant, 
hellish  hate,  when  the  heart  grew  sick  at  contemplating 
the  dark  and  dismal  scene  before  us,  when  your  neigh- 
bors and  friends  around  you,  in  vast  numbers,  had  de- 
serted that  old  flag,  consecrated  by  our  fathers'  blood, 
and  were  trampling  under  foot  that  Constitution  which 
had  so  long  been  our  pride  and  our  hope,  you,  sir,  stood 
firm  and  unmoved  in  your"  devoted  patriotism.  Threat- 


AMONG  THE   EEBELS.  429 

ened  with  the  halter,  with  the  grave  yawning  before 
you,  with  scorn  you  spurned  proffered  freedom  and  such 
honors  as  traitors  could  confer.  To  you  the  grave  had 
no  terrors  to  be  shunned  by  an  act  of  disloyalty  to  your 
beloved  and  now  grateful  country. 

"  We  are  now  rapidly  making  undying  history  for 
future  generations  to  read.  When  the  history  of  this 
wicked  rebellion — for  I  cannot  call  it  an  honorable  war 
— is  written,  it  will  be  sadly  deficient  if  its  pages  do 
not  tell,  in  words  that  burn,  the  story  of  your  wrongs, 
your  fortitude,  and  your  unswerving  devotion  to  your 
country  in  the  hour  of  her  great  trial.  Our  children 
will  need  no  romance  to  stir  their  young  hearts;  but 
the  truthful  picture  of  your  sufferings  and  heroism 
will  fill  the  place  of  high-wrought  fiction.  We  shall 
no  longer  point  to  the  classic  ages  for  noble  examples 
of  heroes  who  laughed  at  the  halter  and  rack  and 
scorned  life  at  the  price  of  dishonor. 

"Sir,  it  is  because  you  have  so  loved  your  country 
and  suffered  for  your  principles  that  we  this  day  wel- 
come you  to  our  Exchange,  to  our  hearth-stones,  to  our 
hearts. 

"  In  behalf  of  the  officers  and  of  the  more  than  nine 
hundred  loyal  members  of  this  Board,  again,  sir,  I  bid 
you  welcome.  Amid  the  stirring,  glorious  news  of  the 
triumph  of  our  arms,  I  bid  you  welcome." 

At  night  General  Carey  and  I  spoke  at  length  to  an 
overwhelming  audience,  and  were  given  the  hospitalities 
of  the  "  Sherman  House"  by  the  city  authorities. 
The  following  night  we  addressed  a  large  and  enthu- 
siastic audience  at  Lafayette,  Indiana. 

Columbus,  Ohio,  April  14. — I  arrived  here  to-day 
from  Cincinnati,  having  been  previously  invited  by 


430  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

both  brandies  of  the  Legislature  and  by  the  City 
Councils.  I  will  let  the  Ohio  State  Journal  give  the 
particulars : — 


"  Pursuant  to  arrangements  made  by  committee  of 
the  Legislature,  the  distinguished  Parson  Brownlow, 
the  patriot  of  East  Tennessee,  was  received  here  yes- 
terday as  the  guest  of  the  State.  Upon  the  arrival  of 
the  train  from  Cincinnati  the  Parson  was  met  at  the 
depot  by  the  69th  Kegiment,  Colonel  Campbell,  with 
their  splendid  band,  and  escorted  to  the  Capitol. 

"  At  a  quarter-past  three  in  the  afternoon,  the  Senate 
was  announced  in  the  hall  of  the  House,  and  was 
seated, — Hon.  James  Monroe,  President  pro  tern,  of  the 
Senate,  taking  the  Speaker's  chair,  with  Speaker  Hub- 
bell  and  Colonel  Campbell,  as  Grand  Marshal,  on  his 
left.  At  precisely  half-past  three,  Governor  Tod  entered 
the  hall,  arm-in-arm  with  Parson  Brownlow.  The  hall 
was  densely  crowded  by  citizens,  including  a  great  num- 
ber of  ladies.  Upon  the  appearance  of  the  Governor, 
escorting  Parson  Brownlow,  the  audience  greeted  them 
with  cheers. 

"  CJpon  reaching  the  Speaker's  stand,  Governor  Tod 
said : — 

"'Mr.  President  and  gentlemen  of  the  Legislature 
of  Ohio,  I  have  the  honor  to  present  to  you,  in  the 
Capitol  of  Ohio,  the  distinguished  visitor  and  guest  of 
our  State,  Parson  Brownlow,  of  Tennessee.  And  as 
such  (turning  to  Parson  Brownlow)  I  have  the  pleasure 
of  taking  you  by  the  hand,  in  the  name  of  our  people, 
as  the  friend  and  the  guest  of  our  Commonwealth.' 

"  The  President  of  the  Senate  then  receiving  him, 
he  was  seated  on  the  right  of  the  President  with  the 
Governor.  Whereupon  President  Monroe  spoke  as 
follows : — 


AMONG  THE  BEBELS.  431 

"  'SENATORS  AND  REPKESENTATIVES  : — 

; '  I  rise  not  so  much  to  occupy  your  time  myself  as 
to  bid  welcome  to  this  Capitol,  and  to  introduce  to  you, 
the  honored  guest  whose  presence  graces  the  occasion. 
I  am  told  that  it  is  expected  of  me,  in  accordance  with 
a  time-honored  custom  which  has  obtained  at  recep- 
tions of  this  sort,  to  submit  a  few  remarks  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  of  the  hour. 

" '  We  are  naturally  reminded,  under  present  cir- 
cumstances, of  that  law  established  by  a  kind  Provi- 
dence, which  ordains  that  the  greatest  evils  shall  bring 
with  them  great  compensations.  War  is  one  of  the 
direst  calamities  that  can  befall  any  nation,  and  yet 
important  benefits  and  blessings  are  often  incident  to 
it.  When  waged  in  behalf  of  a  just  cause,  it  develops 
all  the  nobler  and  more  heroic  elements  of  human 
character.  In  time  of  peace,  the  commercial  spirit — 
the  spirit  of  traffic,  of  gain,  of  greed — rules  society. 
Men  live  for  themselves.  They  occupy  a  low  plane  of 
thought  and  action,  and  move  round  in  narrow  circles. 
They  do  not  rise  to  the  loftier  heights  of  observation 
where  the  eye  sweeps  a  wider  horizon  and  takes  in  a 
broader  view  of«human  relations.  But  when  cherished 
institutions,  country,  home,  are  in  peril,  and  the  shock 
of  war  rouses  the  land,  then  the  moral  sensibilities  of 
our  nature  are  stirred  to  their  depths.  Men  discover 
that  they  are  brothers,  and  that  what  is  for  the  interest 
of  one  is  for  the  interest  of  all.  Then,  among  the 
young  and  the  old,  in  both  sexes  and  all  classes  of  the 
people,  is  revealed  the  spirit  of  self-denial,  the  disposi- 
tion to  suffer,  to  dare  and  to  do,  for  the  attainment  of 
noble  ends,  and  the  heart  which  had  been  shrivelled 
by  self-interest  expands  to  the  generous  dimensions  of 
great  sacrifices  and  sublime  endeavor. 

"  'Perhaps  in  no  contest  since  the  world  began  has 
a  nobler  heroism,  or  heroism  in  more  varied  forms,  been 
manifested,  than  in  that  contest  for  constitutional 
liberty  upon  which  we  now  daily  invoke  the  blessing 

sr 


432  BROWNLOW'S  EXPERIENCES 

of  God.  It  has  indeed  brought  terrible  desolations 
upon  us,  but  it  has  also  given  us  the  most  precious 
things  that  men  or  nations  ever  possess, — rare  and  costly 
human  virtues. 

" '  When  was  a  nobler  heroism  ever  exhibited,  by 
officers  or  men,  upon  the  battle-field  ?  When  was  ever 
seen  in  grander  forms  that  courage  which  impels  men 
to  expose  their  persons,  where  bullets  rain  and  shells 
burst,  with  no  concern,  except  for  the  honor  of  the  flag 
and  the  triumph  of  the  cause?  If  this  war  has  stained 
the  page  of  our  history  with  the  treason  of  Davis,  and 
Beauregard,  and  Buckner,  and  Pillow,  and  Floyd,  it  has 
also  illuminated  that  page  with  the  names  of  Halleck, 
and  Shields,  and  Buell,  and  Grant,  and  Sigel,  and  Curtis, 
and  the  Christian  hero,  Foote;  and  it  has  forever  em- 
balmed in  the  hearts  of  the  people  the  memories  of 
Ellsworth,  and  Winthrop,  and  Baker,  and  Lyon,  and 
Lander.  It  has  also  drawn  forth  from  the  mass  of  our 
soldiers  displays  of  valor  worthy  of  their  Christian 
nurture,  and  of  the  high  achievements  of  their  ancestry 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

" '  This  war,  too,  has  revealed  to  us  the  heroism  of 
woman  in  those  forms  most  precious  to  God  and  man, — 
a,  heroism  which  has  shown  itself  both  in  giving  up  to 
the  country  those  nearest  and  dearest,  and  also  in  toil- 
ing with  patient  meekness  for  the  support  of  the  family 
deprived  of  its  natural  protector,  and  in  supplying,  by 
an  unremitting  and  laborious  industry,  comforts  and 
necessaries  for  soldiers  in  the  camp.  Which  of  us  has 
not  been  profoundly  affected  by  seeing  the  wife  or  the 
mother  weeping,  agonized,  broken-hearted  at  the  thought 
of  separation,  and  yet  not  permitting  her  sorrow  to 
wring  from  her  one  dissuasive  word  to  shake  the  reso- 
lution of  one  dearer  than  her  own  life  to  fight  the 
battles  of  his  country? 

"  Nor  must  I  forget,  though  exhibited  in  other  forms, 
the  heroism  of  the  artificer  and  the  inventor.  Who  has 
not  thought,  as  he  retired  to  his  own  comfortable  couch 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  433 

at  night,  of  the  faithful  mechanics  in  our  foundries, 
manufactories,  and  arsenals,  who,  ever  since  this  war 
began,  all  day  long  and  late  into  the  night,  have  made 
our  workshops  resound  with  the  music  of  their  patriotic 
toil?  who  have  employed  willing  mind  and  sturdy 
muscle  in  making  powder  and  ball,  shot  and  shell,  sabre 
and  bayonet,  and  rifled  ordnance,  to  destroy  treason  ? 
Who  does  not  admire  the  inventor,  who  has  brought 
all  his  powers  of  body  and  mind  to  the  service  of  his 
country?  Who  does  not  honor  the  genius,  patriotism, 
and  courageous  perseverance  which,  in  the  face  of  much 
criticism,  with  small  means  and  no  certain  expectation 
of  reward  in  the  future,  finally  enabled  Ericsson  to 
give  to  the  Federal  Government,  to  give  to  the  Kebels, 
and  to  give  to  France  and  England,  a  Monitor  ? 

"  'I  must  not  delay  you  to  speak  of  all  the  forms  in 
which  this  war  has  developed  the  heroism  of  our  people ; 
but  there  is  one  of  them  which  surely  cannot  be  over- 
looked on  the  present  occasion. 

"'  Among  the  noble  men  and  women  who,  in  these 
unhappy  times,  have  enriched  the  history  of  the  coun- 
try with  the  exalted  graces  of  their  characters,  cer- 
tainly not  the  least  honorable  place  will  be  assigned  to 
those  bold  patriots  in  the  border  States  who,  when  the 
whole  mass  of  the  people  of  those  States  seemed  about 
to  be  swept  away  by  the  tide  of  Secession,  dared  to  take 
their  stand  in  the  very  face  of  the  excited  multitude, 
and  rebuke  the  terrible  madness, — who,  with  few  and 
uninfluential  sympathizers  at  the  time,  through  perse- 
cution, imprisonment,  and  threatened  death,  maintained 
freedom  of  speech  and  freedom  of  the  press.  Cherished 
in  the  heart  of  the  whole  people  are  the  names  of  such 
men  as  Andrew  Johnson  and  W.  G.  Brownlow.  Such 
valor  is  not  noisy  and  ostentatious  like  that  of  the 
battle-field.  It  does  not  announce  itself  to  the  world 
by  the  blare  of  the  trumpet  or  the  roll  of  the  drum.  It 
is  not  plumed  or  epauletted ;  but  God,  in  his  own  good 


434  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

time,  will  cover  it  all  over  with  the  stars  and  decora- 
tions of  Heaven's  nobility. 

" '  It  is  because  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State 
of  Ohio  appreciates  and  honors  this  manly  endurance, 
that  it  heartily  welcomes  this  our  guest  to  this  presence 
and  these  halls  to-day. 

"'And  yet  we  cordially  welcome  our  friend,  not  so 
much  for  the  courage  he  has  exhibited,  as  for  the  moral 
quality  of  that  courage  and  the  noble  end  to  which  it 
was  devoted.  We  respect  and  honor  his  heroism,  because 
it  was  made  subservient  to  the  establishment  of  a  great 
principle,  unspeakably  dear,  at  this  time,  to  all  our 
nearts.  This  principle  can  be  set  forth  in  a  single  sen- 
tence. If  there  is  any  one  thing  that  the  loyal  people 
of  America  have  irrevocably  settled  in  their  minds,  it  is 
this  :  that  these  United  States  do  constitute,  and,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  shall  forever  constitute,  one  permanent 
and  indissoluble  nation.  They  have  decreed  that  these 
States  shall  forever  form  one  great  united  brotherhood, 
— that  no  such  heresy  as  that  of  secession  shall  ever  be 
tolerated  in  this  land,  and  no  such  crime  as  that  of  se- 
cession shall  ever  be  committed;  and  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  these  great  ends  they  have  pledged  all  their 
financial,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  resources. 
We  have  a  Constitution,  the  best  for  the  promotion  of 
general  happiness  and  prosperity  that  God  ever  gave 
to  man.  That  Constitution  may  have  defects ;  but,  if 
such  exist,  provision  has  been  made  within  the  instru- 
ment itself  for  removing  them  in  a  just  and  lawful 
manner.  The  people  will  not  tolerate,  and — I  say  it 
with  reverence — God  will  not  tolerate,  any  attempt  to 
subvert  this  Constitution  by  force  of  arms.  Not  only  the 
principles  of  enlightened  liberty  and  of  all  just  govern- 
ment, but  the  precepts  of  religion  and  the  dictates  of 
philanthropy,  require  that  this  Constitution  shall  be  re- 
spected and  obeyed  until  lawfully  amended.  When- 
ever the  ship  of  state,  smitten  by  the  tempest  of  rebel- 
tion,  shall  part  her  cable,  and  be  driven  out  of  this  harbor 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  435 

of  safety,  nothing  will  be  left  for  her  but  to  become  a 
hideous  wreck  upon  some  rocky  and  sterile  shore.  Some 
one  will  tell  me  of  the  rights  of  the  States.  I  believe 
in  those  rights.  But  what  rights,  or  what  prosperity, 
would  remain  for  the  States  or  their  people  when  once 
this  great  Federal  bond  shall  be  broken?  I  answer, 
the  same  prosperity  that  would  be  left  to  our  earth  if 
she,  becoming  impatient  of  the  control  of  law,  were  to 
throw  off  the  restraints  of  that  gravitation  which  holds 
her  in  the  neighborhood  of  central  light  and  heat,  and 
to  rush  from  her  orbit  into  some  outer  region  of  dark- 
ness and  desolation.  Every  loyal  heart  will  prefer  the 
order  which  God  pronounced  good,  to  the  dismal  chaos 
which  preceded  it,  and  into  which  it  will  once  more 
be  dissolved  when  the  authority  of  law  no  longer  com- 
mands respect.  Hence,  the  voice  of  the  people — which, 
I  would  humbly  trust,  is  also  the  voice  of  God — has 
declared  that  the  Constitution  which  the  fathers  framed 
shall  be  reverenced  and  obeyed, — that  the  old  Govern- 
ment, for  whose  establishment  they  toiled  and  prayed 
and  shed  their  blood,  shall  still  be  our  Government, — 
that  the  old  flag  shall  still  wave  over  the  land  and  over 
the  sea,  with  all  its  glories  still  bright  upon  it,  with  not 
a  color  faded  nor  a  star  obscured.  This  doctrine  we 
love ;  to  support  this  doctrine  we  will  give  all  that  we 
possess ;  and  for  it  we  are  ready  to  die.  And  because 
we  recognize  in  the  patriot  of  Tennessee  a  gallant  de- 
fender of  this  doctrine,  a  representative  man  of  this 
principle  of  nationality,  we  welcome  him  here,  with 
warm  hearts  and  open  hands,  in  the  name  of  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  and  the  people  of  the  State  of  Ohio.' 

"  President  Monroe's  eloquent  remarks  were  received 
with  frequent  and  hearty  cheers.  As  he  concluded,  he 
presented  the  distinguished  visitor  to  the  Legislature 
and  the  citizens,  by  whom  he  was  received  with  great 
applause.  When  the  cheers  that  greeted  him  on  rising 
had  subsided,  Parson  Brownlow  proceeded  to  address 

37* 


436  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

tlie  Legislature  and  audience  in  the  manner  that  is  so 
peculiarly  his  own,  and  which  stirs  and  fascinates  by 
its  tones  of  earnestness  as  well  as  by  his  words  of 
power." 

At  night  I  spoke  in  the  theatre,  to  a  full  house,  for 
more  than  one  hour.  The  orchestra  gave  us  some  stir- 
ring music,  and  Ex-Governor  Dennison  introduced  me  to 
the  audience,  in  a  brief  and  stirring  speech.  I  was  fol- 
lowed by  General  Carey  and  ex-Congressman  Gallaway. 
The  exercises  continued  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night. 

Luther  Donalson,  Esq.,  President  of  the  City  Coun- 
cil, gave  us  a  handsome  entertainment  at  his  residence 
on  State  Street.  His  elegant  lady  spread  a  magnificent 
table,  and  the  Governor  and  many  Senators  and  Repre- 
sentatives were  present,  also  many  handsome  ladies. 

Pittsburg,  April  17. — Here  I  was  met  with  car- 
riages by  the  City  Councils,  Mayors,  and  Aldermen  of 
Pittsburg  and  Alleghany  City,  tendered  the  hospitali- 
ties of  both  corporations,  and  conducted  to  one  of  their 
best  hotels, — the  "  Monongahela  House."  At  night  I 
spoke  one  hour  and  a  half  to  a  crowded  hall.  Left  on 
the  morning  train  for  Philadelphia,  on  the  Pennsylvania 
Railroad.  On  leaving  Pittsburg,  I  was  invited  by  the 
conductor  to  ride  on  the  locomotive,  in  order  to  enjoy 
the  sublime  scenery  along  the  rivers  and  mountains. 
In  this  way  I  rode  seventy  miles.  Poets  and  tourists 
may  sing  and  write  of  "a  life  on  the  ocean  wave/'  or 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  437 

"a  home  on  the  rolling  deep;"  but  give  me  a, seat  in 
an  open  locomotive  at  the  head  of  a  long  passenger- 
train,  and  let  me  cross  the  Alleghany  Mountains  from 
Pittsburg  to  the  new  mountain-city  of  Altoona,  gazing 
on  the  dashing  streams  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  lofty 
and  romantic  mountains  on  the  other.  The  sun  was 
high  in  the  h^Jiof  heaven,  and  rolling  his  chariot 
through  a  cloudless  sky;  all  creation  was  calm,  and 
sleeping  on  the  bosom  of  serenity,  until  aroused  by  the 
heavy  tread  and  clear  whistle  of  the  iron  horse ! 

At  Altoona,  having  descended  the  mountain,  I  was 
met  by  that  prince  of  clever  fellows,  George  W.  Childs, 
the  extensive  and  energetic  Philadelphia  publisher,  and 
by  other  Philadelphians  with  him,  among  whom  I  name 
Mr.  H.  E.  Edmonds,  of  the  Philadelphia  Bar,  and  Mr. 
G.  A.  Townsend,  the  able  and  clever  correspondent  of 
the  Philadelphia  Press. 

Harrisburg,  April  18. — At  this  ancient  capital  of 
the  Keystone  State  the  train  was  detained  some  fifteen 
minutes, — when  an  immense  concourse  gathered  at  the 
depot  demanded  my  appearance  on  the  platform  of  the 
rear  car.  Governor  Curtin  introduced  me  as  "  Parson 
Brownlow,  of  Tennessee."  I  responded,  substantially 

in  these  words  : — 

f 

MY  FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: — Governor  Curtin  in- 
troduces me  as  Parson  Brownlow,  of  Tennessee.  He 


438  BKOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

should  have  stated  that  this  is  what  is  left  of  the  late 
Parson  Brownlow.  Being  a  very  modest  sort  of  man, 
I  have  no  wish  to  speak  of  my  troubles  and  sufferings 
in  the  kingdom  of  Jeff  Davis.  I  claim  no  consider- 
ation for  any  thing  that  I  have  said  or  done,  having 
only  done  my  duty  as  an  American  citizen.  The 
Apostle  Paul  records  the  fact  in  his  history  that  he  had 
fought  with  beasts  at  Ephesus.  Though  not  his  rival, 
I  can  say  more :  I  have  fought  the  "  devil  and  Tom 
Walker,"  and  the  infuriated  legions  of  the  so-called 
Southern  Confederacy!  True,  they  have  wellnigh 
used  me  up ;  but  I  am  now  where  I  can  breathe  free 
and  easy,  and  I  hope  soon  to  recover.  In  the  towns 
where  I  have  been,  and  at  the  depots  along  the  road, 
my  kind  friends  have  spoke  me  too  often,  and  I  feel 
rather  worsted  by  the  operation. 

My  only  ambition  is  to  get  up  a  new  printing-esta- 
blishment, and  return  to  East  Tennessee  and  resurrect 
my  Knoxville  Whig,  the  only  Union  journal  in  the 
Confederacy  at  the  time  the  Eebels  crushed  it  out.  I 
want  to  go  back  and  aid  in  restoring  that  glorious 
State  to  the  old  Union  again.  I  want  to  go  back  and 
point  out  to  the  triumphant  Federal  army  such  men 
as  deserve  to  hang,  and  suitable  limbs  upon  which  to 
hang  them !  Nay,  I  desire  to  tie  the  rope  around 
some  of  their  infernal  necks. 

"We  have  suffered  much.  We  have  been  hung,  shot 
down  on  our  own  properties,  tied  to  trees,  and  whipped 


AMONG   THE   BEBELS.  439 

to  death ;  and  all  this  because  we  would  not  desert  the 
flag  of  our  fathers,  the  Union,  and  the  Constitution. 
These  had  protected  us  for  years;  and  we  won't  give 
them  up  for  the  world  or  the  devil !  [Cheers.]  I  tell 
you,  my  friends, — and  I  do  speak  advisedly, — when 
Andy  Johnson,  our  new  Governor,  orders  an  old-fash- 
ioned State  election,  and  the  withdrawal  of  the  bayonets 
of  Secession  leaves  us  free  to  express  our  will,  Tennes- 
see will  give  the  Union  and  the  Government  a  majority 
of  fifty  thousand !  [Cheers.] 

A  gentleman  in  the  crowd  calls  out  to  know  where 
his  friend,  Colonel  Luttrell,  of  Knoxville,  stands  in  this 
contest.  Well,  my  friend,  he  is  a  Union  man,  good 
and  true  !  [Cheers.]  But  a  few  weeks  ago  an  election 
came  off  in  Knoxville  for  Mayor  and  Aldermen.  The 
Secession  organ  gave  out  that  Colonel  Luttrell  and 
the  candidates  associated  with  him  were  Abolitionists 
and  Lincolnites,  and  proclaimed  their  candidates,  head- 
ing their  ticket  with  the  name  of  their  postmaster. 
Parson  Charlton,  as  the  States-Rights  and  Jeff  Davis 
ticket.  They  had  the  streets  full  of  bayonets  on  the 
day  of  the  election ;  but  the  result  was  that  the  Union 
ticket  was  carried  two  to  one  in  every  ward,  carrying 
all  that  was  heaped  upon  it, — Lincoln,  the  war,  the 
blockade,  and  even  the  Chicago  Platform.  [Great 
cheering.] 

The  game  of  Secession  is  almost  done.  The  ardent 
spirits  in  Secessia  have  almost  got  their  rights,  and 


MO  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

will  soon  come  in  to  renew  their  allegiance.  Your 
blockade  is  ruining  them  at  a  greater  rate  than  fire 
and  sword.  Although  cotton  is  said  to  be  king,  there 
is  not  a  spool  of  it  in  Knoxville,  and  they  have  no  calico 
or  domestic  goods  of  any  description. 

Gentlemen,  I  cannot  conclude  without  expressing  my 
admiration  for  the  great  State  of  Pennsylvania,  a  State 
which  has  furnished  so  many  gallant  soldiers  to  battle 
for  the  Union, — more,  I  am  authorized  to  say,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  population,  than  any  other  State.  [Cheers.] 
Your  Governor,  too,  has  done  his  whole  duty  in  this 
war.  He  is  the  right  man  in  the  right  place,  and,  if  he 
were  not  present,  I  should  certainly  speak  of  him  in  ex- 
travagant terms  of  praise.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  As 
it  is,  I  make  you  my  best  bow,  and  I  join  Governor 
Curtin,  Ex-Governor  Porter,  and  other  members  of  the 
Executive  Staff,  in  a  cup  of  coffee  in  this  Eefreshment 
Saloon.  [Prolonged  cheers.] 

Philadelphia,  April  19. — After  being  immensely 
cheered  at  every  station  on  the  railroad,  and  loudly 
called  for,  I  arrived  here  last  night  between  the  hours 
of  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock,  and  was  met  at  the  depot 
by  a  delegation  from  the  Select  and  Common  Councils, 
and  was  received  by  JOSEPH  MEGARY,  who  spoke  as 
follows : — • 

"ME.  BROWNLOW  : — SIR : — The  Councils  of  Philadel- 
phia have  deputed  us  to  tender  to  you  the  hospitalities 


AMONG  THE   REBELS.  441 

of  the  city.  In  doing  which,  the  city  of  Philadelphia 
has  honored  herself  in  paying  honor  to  a  patriot  who 
has  suffered  so  much  in  the  cause  of  constitutional  lib- 
erty. The  people  of  Philadelphia,  always  loyal,  will 
shout  with  joy  at  the  reception  of  a  patriot  who  has 
dared  to  tell  those  would-be  destroyers  of  the  greatest 
Government  that  God  ever  made,  'Thus  didst  thou.' 
Allow  me  again  to  tender  to  you  the  hospitalities  of 
the  city." 

After  briefly  acknowledging  the  compliment  paid 
me,  I  was  escorted  to  the  carriages,  and  our  whole 
party  was  driven  rapidly  to  the  Continental  Hotel, — 
perhaps  the  most  elegant  house  in  America.  After 
making  the  acquaintance  of  a  number  of  gentlemen,  I 
was  shown  to  my  rooms,  and  retired,  greatly  fatigued, 
but  much  gratified  at  the  kind  treatment  I  had  every- 
where received. 

At  eleven  o'clock  this  morning  I  spoke  to  the  citizens 
in  front  of  old  INDEPENDENCE  HALL,  on  Chestnut  Street, 
for  nearly  one  hour,  to  an  immense  audience.  I  there 
found  a  stand  erected,  draped  with  several  flags,  among 
which  was  the  large  flag  raised  on  the  22d  of  February, 
1861,  by  President  Lincoln.  It  was  a  beautiful  morning, 
and  I  was  in  front  of  the  old  Temple  of  Liberty,  sur- 
rounded by  a  host  of  loyal  men.  I  thought  of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, — of  the  Con- 
gress that  appointed  Washington  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Kevolutionary  army, — of  Eobert  Morris,  of  Ke- 
volutionary  fame, — of  Eittenhouse,  Penn,  Logan,  and 
the  immortal  Franklin.  My  speech,  with  some  varia- 


442  EROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

tions  caused  by  the  surrounding  circumstances,  was 
substantially  the  same  as  at  Cincinnati  and  other 
towns  where  I  had  spoken  at  length.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  my  off-hand  address  I  was  greeted  by  three  long 
and  hearty  cheers,  when  I  retired. 

Invitation  to  Baltimore, 

The  two  brief  documents  which  I  annex  to  these  re- 
marks will  show  the  feeling  towards  me  in  that  city. 
A  second  letter  from  the  Mayor,  stating  a  similar  ac- 
tion by  the  second  branch  of  the  City  Government,  I 
have  mislaid.  The  reader  may  feel  anxious  to  know 
why  it  is  that  I  give  so  many  of  these  documents  com- 
plimentary to  myself.  It  is  because  the  corrupt  and 
lying  press  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  are  publishing 
that  I  have  been  treated  with  scorn  and  contempt  at 
the  North,  and  in  some  instances  that  I  have  been  ut- 
terly repudiated  by  large  public  meetings  !  The  Knox- 
ville  Register  and  Athens  Post — two  East  Tennessee 
organs  of  Secession — have  named  Baltimore  as  having 
repudiated  me  officially.  It  is  to  brand  these  drunken, 
lying  editors,  and  those  who  retail  their  slanders,  with 
falsehood  and  infamy,  that  I  intrude  a  portion  of  a  vast 
number  of  similar  documents  I  have  received,  upon  the 
notice  of  the  reader. 

While  in  the  South,  I  seldom  took  up  one  of  the 
many  pensioned  and  prostituted  sheets  printed  there, 
that  I  did  not  read  labored  accounts  of  the  sufferings 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  443 

of  the  North  growing  out  of  this  war.  "We  were  all 
told  there  that  the  North  was  on  the  very  "eve  of 
starvation,"  and  that  all  her  principal  cities  were 
"threatened  with  bread-riots."  I  have  seen  much  of 
the  North  in  the  last  two  months,  and  I  have  found  a 
country  prosperous  and  happy.  Provisions  are  abun- 
dant and  cheap.  Goods  of  all  kinds  are  to  be  had  at 
former  prices,  almost ;  and  money  is  abundant ;  while 
Government  stocks  are  advancing.  The  only  evidence 
to  be  se^n  of  the  existence  of  a  war  is  in  the  news- 
papers, and  the  appearance  in  the  cities  and  towns  of 
a  few  officers  and  soldiers  in  uniform. 

But  to  the  documents  from  Baltimore.  A  third  one 
I  regret  to  have  misplaced  : — 

"  CHAMBER  FIRST  BRANCH  CITT  COUNCIL,  l 
"April  8,  1862.  J 

"  JOHN  LEE  CHAPMAN,  ESQ.,  Mayor: — 

"  SIR: — You  are  respectfully  notified  that  the  follow- 
ing is  a  true  copy  of  a  resolution  adopted  by  this 
branch  at  its  session  of  this  date  : — 

"Resolved,  by  the  First  Branch  of  the  City  Council 
of  Baltimore,  That  the  Hon.  John  L.  Chapman,  the 
Mayor,  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  requested  to  invite  that 
bold  and  uncompromising  patriot,  Parson  William  G. 
Brownlow,  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  to  visii  the  city 
of  Baltimore,  and  tender  to  him  the  hospitality  of  the 
city. 

"  By  order.  ANDREW  J.  BANDEL,  Clerk." 

38 


444  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 


"  MAYOR'S  OFFICE,  CITY  HALL,  j 
"  BALTIMORE,  April  14,  1862.  ) 

"Kev.  WILLIAM  G.  BROWNLOW:  — 


SIR:  —  Enclosed  please  find  copy  of  a  reso- 
lution unanimously  passed  by  the  First  Branch  of  our 
City  Council. 

"It  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  co-operate  with  the 
First  Branch  in  this  matter,  and  to  assure  you  that 
every  Union-loving  heart  in  Baltimore  will  give  you  a 
most  hearty  welcome. 

"We  have  watched  your  course  and  have  sympa- 
thized with  you  in  your  sufferings,  and  rejoice  to  know 
that  you  are  again  permitted  to  breathe  the  pure  air 
of  freedom,  untainted  with  Secession  and  treason. 

"  I  will  be  pleased  to  hear  from  you  at  your  earliest 
convenience. 

"With  great  respect,  &c. 
"  JOHN  LEE  CHAPMAN,  ex  -officio  Mayor" 

Crosswicks,  N.  J.,  Hay  10.  —  I  am  now  in  a  pleasant 
and  quiet  village  in  New  Jersey,  county  of  Burlington, 
—  a  county  wanting  but  a  few  hundred  inhabitants  to 
equal  in  population  the  entire  State  of  Florida.  Here 
I  have  reposed  in  quiet  and  comfort,  for  three  weeks,  in 
the  hospitable  mansion  of  Kobert  E.  Peterson,  Esq., 
whose  extensive  library  has  been  at  my  command  whilst 
I  have  hurried  through  with  this  book.  Mrs.  Peterson 
is  a  lady  of  rare  literary  attainments,  and  is  the 
authoress  of  a  large  work  on  Astronomy,  alike  extolled 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  445 

in  Europe  and  America  by  the  first  scientific  and  lite- 
rary men  of  the  age.  Their  mansion  is  on  the  spot  of 
ground  occupied  by  General  Howe  in  the  Revolution- 
ary  struggle.  The  Indian  name  of  Crosswicks  signi- 
fied separation.  The  creek  separates  into  two  branches 
close  to  the  village.  Here  is  a  large  and  commodious 
brick  meeting-house,  belonging  to  the  Quakers,  which 
seats  two  thousand  persons.  During  a  Revolutionary 
battle,  a  cannon-ball  struck  the  north  side  of  the 
building.  The  hole  made  by  the  ball  is  yet  visible. 
I  have  inspected  it:  it  is  situated  between  the  sills 
of  the  two  upper  windows.  The  American  troops, 
after  the  battle  of  Trenton,  used  the  meeting-house  for 
barracks ;  yet,  unlike  the  Rebel  soldiers  in  the  South, 
who  use  churches  for  a  similar  purpose,  they  neither 
defaced  this  venerable  building  nor  disturbed  the  So- 
ciety in  their  public  religious  duties.  A  Quaker 
preacher  and  two  prominent  members  waited  on  me 
and  invited  me  to  make  them  a  speech,  which  I  did, 
occupying  one  hour  and  a  half,  and  speaking  to  a 
crowded  house.  This  was  considered  a  great  compli- 
ment, as  they  never  extend  such  favors  to  other 
churches,  or  to  politicians.  The  cheering  was  con- 
siderable; and  it  was  remarked  that  this  venerable 
building  had  not  received  such  a  shock  since  the  war 
of  the  Revolution. 

At   Bordentown,  (situated   four  miles   from  Cross- 
wicks,)  from  1816  until  1842,  Joseph  Bonaparte,  the 


446  BEOWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

ex-King  of  Spain,  and  brother  of  Napoleon,  resided. 
His  park  and  grounds  comprised  some  fifteen  hundred 
acres  of  land.  His  mansion  was  enriched  by  exquisite 
works  of  art,  in  painting  and  sculpture.  Bordentown 
is  also  famed  for  once  having  been  the  residence  of 
the  celebrated  infidel  Tom  Paine,  who,  let  his  religious 
opinions  have  been  ever  so  odious,  was  a  man  of  tran- 
scendent talents,  and  did  much  towards  establishing 
this  Union. 

Expulsion  of  my  Family  from  Tennessee. 
Smarting  under  the  lash  I  have  applied  to  the 
rogues,  liars,  and  traitors  who  have  led  off  in  this  re- 
bellion, since  I  came  North,  the  vile  miscreants  have 
sought  to  damage  me  all  they  could.  Ashamed  of 
having  retained  my  family  there,  and  wanting  to 
occupy  my  large  and  commodious  dwelling  as  a  hos- 
pital, they  resolved  upon  driving  my  family  out,  and, 
with  one  sweeping  act  of  usurpation  and  oppression, 
intending  to  give  the  lie  to  my  charge  that  they  were 
holding  them  as  hostages  for  my  good  conduct  while 
North.  Churchwell,  theprovost-marshal,  seeks  to  vent 
his  spleen  upon  an  innocent  and  helpless  woman  and 
children,  and  uses  a  contemptible  scoundrel,  clothed 
with  the  Eebel  authority  of  a  major-general,  as  a  tool 
to  enable  him  to  carry  out  nis  malicious  feelings  of 
resentment  for  my  exposures  of  his  personal  dishonesty, 


AMONG   THE   KEBELS.  447 

his  false  swearing  in  a  bank-suit,  and  the  subsequent 
selling  of  him  out  under  the  hammer. 

My  wife  and  children  have  arrived  in  New  Jersey, 
after  a  long  and  fatiguing  journey,  via  Fortress  Mon- 
roe, under  a  flag  of  truce,  and  after  the  sacrifice  of  a 
large  and  well-furnished  house  and  all  I  have  suc- 
ceeded in  accumulating  during  twenty-five  years  of  toil 
and  industry.  That  the  reader  may  fully  understand  the 
case,  I  submit  for  perusal  the  following  documents  : — 

Proclamation, 

"THE  Major-General  commanding  this  Department, 
charged  with  the  enforcement  of  martial  law,  believ- 
ing that  many  of  its  citizens  have  been  misled  into  the 
commission  of  treasonable  acts  through  ignorance  of 
their  duties  and  obligations  to  their  State,  and  that 
many  have  actually  fled  across  the  mountains  and 
joined  our  enemies  under  the  persuasion  and  mis- 
guidance of  supposed  friends,  but  designing  enemies, 
hereby  proclaims  : — 

"  1st.  That  no  person  so  misled,  who  comes  forward, 
declares  his  error,  and  takes  the  oath  to  support  the 
Constitution  of  the  State  and  of  the  Confederate  States, 
shall  be  molested  or  punished  on  account  of  past  acts 
or  words. 

"  2d.  That  no  person  so  persuaded  and  misguided  as 
to  leave  his  home  and  join  the  enemy,  who  shall  re- 
turn within  thirty  days  of  the  date  of  this  proclama- 
tion, acknowledge  his  error,  and  take  an  oath  to  sup- 
port the  Constitution  of  the  State  and  of  the  Confede- 
rate States,  shall  be  molested  or  punished  on  account 
of  past  acts  or  words. 

"After  thus  announcing  his  disposition  to  treat  with 
the  utmost  clemency  those  who  have  been  led  away 

38* 


448  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

from  the  true  path  of  patriotic  duty,  the  Major-General 
commanding  furthermore  declares  his  determination 
henceforth  to  employ  all  the  elements  at  his  disposal 
for  the  protection  of  the  lives  and  property  of  the  citi- 
zens of  East  Tennessee, — whether  from  the  incursions 
of  the  enemy  or  the  irregularities  of  his  own  troops, — 
and  for  the  suppression  of  all  treasonable  practices. 

"  He  assures  all  citizens  engaged  in  cultivating  their 
farms,  that  he  will  protect  them  in  their  rights,  and 
that  he  will  suspend  the  militia  draft  under  the  State 
laws,  that  they  may  raise  crops  for  consumption  in  the 
coming  year. 

"  He  invokes  the  zealous  co-operation  of  the  authori- 
ties, and  of  all  good  people,  to  aid  him  in  his  en- 
deavors. 

"  The  courts  of  criminal  jurisdiction  will  continue 
to  exercise  their  functions,  save  the  issuing  of  writs 
of  habeas  corpus.  Their  writs  will  be  served  and 
their  decrees  executed  by  the  aid  of  the  military,  when 
necessary. 

"When  the  courts  fail  to  preserve  the  peace  or  punish 
offenders  against  the  laws,  those  objects  will  be  attained 
through  the  action  of  military  tribunals  and  the  exer- 
cise of  the  force  of  his  command. 

"E.  KIRBY  SMITH, 
11  Major- Gen.  Command 'g  Dept.  of  East  Tenn. 

tl  HEAD-QUARTERS,  KNOXVILLE,  April  18,  1862." 


"  To  the  Disaffected  People  of  East  Tennessee, 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  EAST  TENNESSEE,  ) 
"  OFFICE  PROVOST-MARSHAL,  April  23,  1862.  j 

"  The  undersigned,  in  executing  martial  law  in  this 
Department,  assures  those  interested,  who  have  fled  to 
the  enemy's  lines  and  who  are  actually  in  their  army, 
that  he  will  welcome  their  return  to  their  homes  and 
their  families :  they  are  offered  amnesty  and  protec- 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  449 

tion,  if  they  come  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  act  as 
loyal  citizens  within  the  thirty  days  given  them  by 
Major-General  E.  Kirby  Smith  to  do  so. 

"  At  the  end  of  that  time,  those  failing  to  return  to 
their  homes  and  accept  the  amnesty  thus  offered  and 
provide  for  and  protect  their  wives  and  children  in  East 
Tennessee,  will  have  them  sent  to  their  care  in  Ken- 
tucky, or  beyond  the  Confederate  States  lines,  at  their 
own  expense. 

"All  that  leave  after  this  date,  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  above  acts,  their  families  will  be  sent  immediately 
after  them. 

"  The  women  and  children  must  be  taken  care  of  by 
husbands  and  fathers,  either  in  East  Tennessee  or  in 
the  Lincoln  Government. 

"  W.  M.  CHUECHWELL, 
"  Colonel  and  Provost-Marshal. 

"  KNOXVILLE,  TENN.,  April  23,  1862." 


"HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  EAST  TENNESSEE, 
"OFFICE  PROVOST-MARSHAL,  April  21,  1862. 

"MRS.  W.  G.  BROWNLOW,  Knoxville: — 

"  MADAM  : — By  Major-General  E.   Kirby  Smith  I 
am  directed  most  respectfully  to  inform  you  that  you 
and  your  children  are  not  held  as  hostages  for  the  good 
behavior  of  your  husband,  as  represented  by  him  in  a 
speech  at  Cincinnati  recently,  and  that  yourself  and 
family  will  be  required  to  pass  beyond  the  Confederate 
States  line  in  thirty-six  hours  from  this  date. 
"  Passports  will  be  granted  you.  from  this  office. 
"Very  respectfully, 

"W.  M.  CHURCH  WELL, 
" Colonel  and  Provost- Marshal" 


450  BROWNLOW'S  EXPEEIENCES 

"KNOXVILLE,  TENN.,  April  21,  1862. 

"  COLONEL  W.  M.  CHUKCHWELL,  Provost- Marshal : — 

"  SIR  : — Your  official  note  as  Provost-Marshal  for  East 
Tennessee,  ordering  myself  and  family  to  remove  beyond 
the  limits  of  the  Confederate  States  within  the  next 
thirty-six  hours,  is  just  received;  and  I  hasten  to  reply 
to  it.  My  husband,  as  you  are  aware,  is  not  here  to 
afford  me  his  protection  and  counsel ;  and,  being  well- 
nigh  in  the  evening  of  life,  with  a  family  of  dependent 
children,  I  have  to  request,  as  a  matter  of  indulgence, 
that  you  extend  the  time  for  my  exile  a  few  days  longer, 
as  to  leave  within  the  time  prescribed  by  your  mandate 
would  result  in  the  total  sacrifice  of  my  private  interests. 
"  I  have  to  request  the  further  information  what 
guarantee  of  safety  your  passport  will  afford  myself  and 
family.  Yours,  &c., 

"  ELIZA  A.  BROWNLOW." 

"HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  EAST  TENNESSEE,  \ 
"OFFICE  PROVOST-MARSHAL,  April  22,  1862.       J 

"  MRS.  W.  G-.  BROWNLOW  : — 

"  MADAM  : — At  your  request,  the  time  for  your  leaving 
to  join  your  husband  is  extended  until  Thursday  morn- 
ing next.     The  route  will  be  via  Kingston  and  Sparta. 
"Your  safety  will  be  the  soldiers  sent  along  for  your 
protection  to  the  enemy's  line. 

"Very  respectfully, 

"W.  M.  CHURCHWELL, 
"  Colonel  and  Provost- Marshal." 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  451 

''HEAD-QUARTERS,  DEPARTMENT  EAST  TENNESSEE,      1 
OFFICE  PROVOST-MARSHAL,  KNOXVILLE,  April  25,  1862.  / 

"  The  following-named  persons  are  allowed  (in  charge 
of  Lieutenant  Joseph  H.  Speed)  to  pass  out  of  the  Con- 
federate States  Government  by  way  of  Norfolk,  Va. : — 
"  Mrs.  Eliza  Brownlow  and  three  children. 
"  Miss  Mary  Brownlow. 
"  Mrs.  Sue  C.  Sawyers  and  child. 
"John  B.  Brownlow. 

"W.  M.  CHURCHWELL, 
"  Colonel  and  Provost-Marshal." 

EDITOR  OF  THE  PHILADELPHIA  PRESS  : — 

SIR  : — I  desire  to  publish  in  your  widely-circulated 
journal  a  brief  card,  and  I  request  your  other  city 
papers  to  copy.  I  consider  that  the  Petersburg' J^cprew, 
in  announcing  the  arrival  in  that  city  of  my  wife  and 
children,  and  the  wife  and  children  of  the  Hon.  Horace 
Maynard,  has  mendaciously  assailed  the  reputation  and 
patriotism  of  these  ladies,  in  stating  "  that,  though  the 
husbands  have  evinced  an  unaccountable  hostility  to  the 
South  and  its  cause,  they  (the  ladies)  are  firmly  attached 
to  the  Confederacy." 

There  is  not  one  word  of  truth  in  this  statement, 
unless  it  be  alleged  that  the  homes  and  firesides  of  these 
ladies,  in  Knoxville,  from  which  they  have  been  uncere- 
moniously expelled  by  an  insolent  order  of  the  com- 
manding general,  constitute  the  Confederacy.  The  order 
was  issued  to  these  families  by  William  M.  Churchwell, 


452  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

provost-marshal  .at  Knoxville,  giving  them  thirty-six 
hours  in  which  to  leave  the  Confederacy,  leaving  their 
houses  and  furniture  behind,  and  escaping  with  only  a 
portion  of  their  wearing-apparel.  Churchwell,  who  issued 
this  mendacious  order,  no  doubt  took  great  pleasure  in 
doing  so.  His  hatred  of  Mr.  Maynard's  family  grows  out 
of  Maynard's  having  beaten  him  by  two  thousand  votes 
in  that  district,  in  a  contest  for  the  United  States  Con- 
gress. His  hatred  for  my  wife  and  five  helpless  young 
girls  arises  from  my  having  convicted  him  of  falsehood 
and  dishonesty,  in  a  court  of  justice,  in  a  certain  bank- 
suit  I  brought  against  him.  He  ought  now  to 
drive  out  of  the  Confederacy  five  officers  in  his  rebel 
regiment  who  preferred  the  grave  charge  against  him, 
at  Kichmond,  of  trying  to  draw  from  the  paymaster  of 
the  army,  upon  false  papers,  forty  thousand  dollars 
more  than  he  was  entitled  to.  A  fit  representative  of 
the  morality,  virtue,  and  integrity  of  the  bogus  Con- 
federacy ! 

My  family  are  safe,  in  the  vicinity  of  Bordentown, 
New  Jersey,  and  feel  that  to  have  escaped  with  their 
lives  and  a  part  of  their  wearing-apparel  from  the  savage 
beasts  of  the  Confederacy  is  a  great  blessing,  and  that 
they  can  sing,  in  good  faith, — 

"God  of  my  life,  whose  gracious  power 

Through  various  deaths  my  soul  hath  led, 
Has  shone  upon  the  darkened  hour, 
Has  lifted  up  my  sinking  head." 

Every  member  of  my  family  old  enough  to  appreciate 


AMONG   THE   EEBELS.  453 

the  horrors  of  this  infernal  rebellion  despises  the  so- 
called  Confederacy  and  the  unprincipled  villains  who 
inaugurated  it.  The  only  difference  between  us  is,  that 
I  claim  to  be  capable  of  despising  the  wicked  concern, 
and  all  connected  with  originating  it,  with  more  intense 
hatred  than  they  can.  But,  then,  I  have  trained  them 
up  "in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  which 
implies  obedience  to  law  and  order,  and  an  undying 
hatred  of  Secession  and  its  guilty  authors. 

The  work  of  murder,  arrests,  and  imprisonments  goes 
bravely  on  in  East  Tennessee,  as  my  family  inform  me, 
who  left  Knoxville  six  weeks  after  I  did.  They  were 
shooting  Union  men  down  in  the  streets,  arresting 
hundreds,  and  killed,  in  one  instance,  fifty  or  sixty  after 
they  had  surrendered  and  were  under  an  arrest.  They 
marched  between  three  and  four  hundred  loyal  citizens, 
some  of  them  barefooted  and  their  feet  bleeding,  to  the 
depot,  and  shipped  them  to  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  work 
upon  their  fortifications.  These  men  were  denied  water : 
they  would  lift  out  of  mud-puddles  in  the  streets,  with 
their  hands,  after  a  rain,  what  they  could  to  quench  their 
thirst. 

In  God's  name,  I  call  upon  President  Lincoln,  and 
upon  his  Cabinet  and  army-officers,  to  say  how  long  they 
will  suffer  a  loyal  people,  true  to  the  Union  and  to  the 
Government  of  their  fathers,  to  suffer  in  this  way.  The 
Union  men  of  East  Tennessee  are  largely  in  the  ma- 
jority,— say  three  to  one, — but  they  have  no  arms; 


454  BROWNLOW'S   EXPERIENCES 

they  are  in  the  jails  of  the  country;  they  are  working 
on  Rebel  fortifications,  like  slaves  under  the  lash,  and  no 
Federal  force  has  ever  yet  been  marched  into  that 
oppressed  and  down-trodden  country.  Let  the  Govern- 
ment, if  it  have  any  regard  for  its  obligations,  redeem 
that  country  at  once,  and  liberate  these  people,  no 
matter  at  what  cost  of  blood  and  treasure.  They  have 
suffered  these  outrages  for  the  last  twelve  months,  and 
are  now  desponding, — nay,  despairing  of  any  relief. 

Let  an  army — "  a  terrible  army,  with  banners" — go 
at  once  into  East  Tennessee,  and  back  up  the  loyal  citi- 
zens, while  the  latter  shoot  and  hang  their  persecutors 
wherever  they  can  find  them.  I  want  the  army  to  serve 
for  me  as  a  forerunner, — a  sort  of  John  the  Baptist  in 
the  wilderness, — so  that  I  may  go  back  with  a  new 
press,  type,  and  paper,  and  resurrect  my  Union  journal, 
and  tell  one  hundred  thousand  subscribers,  weekly,  what 
is  going  on  upon  the  borders  of  civilization. 

In  conclusion,  I  return  my  most  sincere  thanks,  and 
the  thanks  and  gratitude  of  my  persecuted  family,  to 
Lieutenant  Speed,  the  Eebel  officer  who  had  them  in 
charge,  for  the  kind,  courteous,  and  gentlemanlike  treat- 
ment they  received  at  his  hands,  in  protecting  them 
against  the  insures  of  Secession  blackguards,  seeing 
after  their  baggage,  and  turning  them  over  to  General 
Wool,  at  Fortress  Monroe.  The  gentlemanly  instincts 
of  a  Whig  and  a  Methodist  have  not  been  crushed  out 
m  this  true-hearted  Virginian  by  the  incurable  disease 


AMONG   THE    REBELS.  455 

of  Secession ;  and;  whatever  may  betide  him  in  the  ups 
and  downs  of  this  unholy  war,  he  will  have  my  good 
wishes,  and  the  good  wishes  of  my  family. 

I  am,  &c.,  "W.  G-.  BEOWNLOW. 

CROSSWICKS,  NEW  JERSEY,  May  3,  1862. 

This  man  Churchwell  hopes,  by  sending  my  family 
over  the  lines  and  destroying  all  I  have  in  Tennessee, 
and  thus  reducing  me  to  poverty,  to  prevent  my  return 
to  that  country,  and  to  rid  the  country  of  me  altogether. 
Vain  delusion  !  There  I  am  bound  to  live,  and  there  I  am 
resolved  to  publish  a  Union  paper,  and  to  expose  to  the 
gaze  of  an  inquiring  and  active  world  the  deep  depra- 
vity and  damning  offences  of  all  such  as  this  man 
Churchwell  f  Unrenewed  by  grace,  steeped  to  the 
chin  in  personal  and  political  corruption,  and  deeply 
imbued  with  the  malice,  hatred,  and  meanness  of  a  land- 
pirate,  with  a  nature  inclining  him  to  take  a  willing 
part  in  all  villainies,  he  has  never  figured  in  an  honor- 
able enterprise  in  his  life.  While  in  Congress,  he  sold 
his  votes  to  those  who  gave  him  most  money,  not  caring 
whether  the  measure  he  voted  for  would  defraud  the 
Government  or  meet  with  the  approval  or  disapproval 
of  his  constituents.  A  base  man,  whose  grovelling  pas- 
sions assume  full  sway  on  all  occasions,  and  whose  in- 
numerable moral  delinquencies  are  to  be  seen  wherever 
his  footprints  go, — lost  to  all  sense  of  honor  and  shame, 
degraded  in  his  nature,  corrupt  in  his  principles,  sold 

39 


456  BROWNLOW'S    EXPERIENCES 

to  the  great  enemy  of  God  and  man, — he  is  a  true  re- 
presentative of  the  morality  and  integrity  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy,  and  displays  its  criminal  intentions  in 
all  their  hideous  deformity.  And  yet  how  little,  how 
sordid,  how  mean,  and  how  contemptible  must  be  that 
man  E.  Kirby  Smith  to  be  used  as  a  tool  by  such  a  man  ! 

Can  any  cause  employing  such  men  and  inflicting 
such  wrongs  be  expected  to  prosper?  Are  not  the 
frowns  of  God  upon  them  ?  No  wonder  they  retreat 
from  Yorktown,  Williamsburg,  Corinth,  Bowling  Green, 
Manassas,  Nashville,  Huntsville,  and  other  points,  and 
surrender  New  Orleans  !  The  time  is  not  far  distant, 
to  use  their  own  favorite  expression,  when  they  will 
"retire"  from  the  United  States.  Their  leaders,  who 
have  the  capital,  will  go  to  France,  and  their  plun- 
derers, such  as  this  man  Churchwell,  will  go  to 
Mexico ! 

To  illustrate  the  corruptions  of  this  bogus  Confede- 
racy, and  the  utter  want  of  principle  on  the  part  of  its 
leading  men,  I  conclude  this  book  with  an  extract  from 
a  letter  from  East  Tennessee  : — 

"  You  are  aware  that  a  number  of  our  Union  friends 
were  sent  from  the  Knoxville  jail  to  Tuscaloosa,  to  be 
held  as  prisoners  during  the  war,  some  of  whom  died. 
As  no  trial  was  allowed  to  any  of  them,  and  as  nothing 
like  justice  could  be  had,  it  was  resolved  in  Bradley 
county  to  try  what  virtue  there  was  in  money.  So  a 


AMONG   THE   REBELS.  457 

purse  of  TWENTY- FIVE  HUNDRED  DOLLARS  was  made 
up,  and  given  to  a  leading  Secessionist,  who  is,  or  has 
been,  a  member  of  a  certain  brigadier-general's  staff, 
on  the  condition  that  he  would  go  to  Eichmond  and 
have  twenty-five  East  Tennesseeans,  whose  names  were 
given  him,  released.  He  accepted  the  bribe,  went  to 
Eichmond,  and  got  twenty-four  released,  mostly  Brad- 
ley-county men.  The  one  not  released  had  been  set  free 
by  death.  This  is  a  beautiful  commentary  upon  the 
morality  of  the  officials  of  the  new  Government ! 

"  One  other  case,  and  I  shall  close.  John  Anderson,  a 
brother  of  the  late  Congressman  Josiah  M.  Anderson, 
was  on  his  death-bed  in  Mobile,  with  a  number  of  the 
East  Tennessee  prisoners  around  him  from  Tuscaloosa. 
He  said  that  he  desired  to  make  a  statement  of  facts, 
and  was  not  willing  to  die  without  doing  so.  He  called 
around  him  quite  a  number  of  our  Union  prisoners, — 
among  whom  were  Dr.  Brown,  Stephen  Beard,  Samuel 
Hunt,  Dr.  Hunt,  and  John  Kinchelo, — and  stated  to 
them  that,  while  he  lay  sick  in  Cleveland,  in  Bradley 
county,  W.  S.  Tibbs,  the  member  elect  to  the  Eich- 
mond Congress  from  the  Third  Tennessee  District,  had 
approached  him  and  offered  him  a  bribe  of  five  hun- 
dred dollars  if  he  would  go  to  the  Knoxville  court  and 
swear  that  Dr.  Hunt  and  Levi  Trewhitt,  Esq.,  were 
concerned  in  burning  the  Hiawassee  bridge.  He  de- 
clined the  bribe,  and  said  that  he  did  not  know  or 
believe  them  to  be  concerned!" 


458  BROWNLOW   AMONG  THE   EEBELS. 

I  have  now  finished  this  sketch  of  Secession  by  an 
eye-witness.  It  has  been  a  sad  record.  I  have  no 
particle  of  sympathy  for  the  leaders  in  this  criminal 
rebellion;  but  I  commiserate  the  multitudes  who  have 
been  swept  into  its  vortex  by  a  current  of  overwhelm- 
ing fanaticism  and  terrorism  which  they  were  power- 
less to  resist.  I  have  spoken  plainly,  vehemently, — 
perhaps  bitterly :  I  could  not  do  otherwise  in  so  dear  a 
concernment  as  my  country's  good.  I  feel  that  I  may 
appropriate  the  prophet's  language:  the  "word  was  in 
mine  heart  as  a  burning  fire  shut  up  in  my  bones ;  I 
was  weary  with  forbearing,  and  could  not  stay."  I  can 
spare  no  denunciation  when  I  see  demagogues  and 
traitors  deliberately  plunging  us  into  a  fratricidal  war 
fit  only  for  the  leadership  of  Cain.  But  I  lay  down 
my  pen  with  the  conviction  that  the  bold,  bad  men 
who  have  appealed  to  the  arbitrament  of  arms  will  be 
discomfited  in  that  issue.  The  thronging  victories  of 
the  Constitution  are  the  presages  of  returning  peace 
and  prosperity.  God  grant  that  the  people  may  now 
raise  their  eyes  and  lift  their  hands  to  the  eternal  and 
propitious  Throne,  in  fervent  supplication  that  the 
Father  of  Mercies  will  compose  the  distractions  of  our 
suffering  land,  and  eclipse  the  splendor  of  our  annals 
in  the  past  by  the  future  renown,  for  ages  to  come,  of 
theEe-United  States! 

THE   END. 


EECENT  PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

GEOEGE  W.  CHILDS, 

628  &  630  CHESTNUT  ST.,  PHILADELPHIA. 


Sparks's  Life  and  Writings  of  Dr,  Franklin,  containing 

several  Political  and  Historical  Facts  not  included  in  any  former  edi- 
tion, and  many  Letters,  Official  and  Private,  not  hitherto  published. 
With  Notes,  etc.,  by  Jared  Sparks,  LL.D.  A  new  edition,  with  23 
steel  plates,  beautifully  printed  on  fine  paper.  10  vols.  octavo, 

superior  cloth  binding $15  00 

Same,  sheep,  library  style,  marble  edges 18  00 

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(more  than  one-third  of  the  whole  bulk  of  the  new  edition)  not  to 
be  found  in  any  other  collection.  Of  the'se.  upwards  of  four  hun- 
dred and  sixty  had  never  been  printed.  The  Familiar  Letters  of 
Franklin,  published  in  1833  by  Dr.  Sparks,  are  included  in  this 
edition;  and  magazines,  pamphlets,  and  newspapers  have  been  in- 
dustriously examined,  and  no  printed  paper  omitted  which  is  known 
to  have  been  written  by  Dr.  Franklin.  The  number  of  books, 
papers,  etc. — excluding  letters — is  no  less  than  304! 

Sparks's   Illustrated    Life  of    Franklin,     l  vol.    octavo, 

cloth $1  50 

The  Great  Iron  Wheel  Examined,  or  its  False  Spokes  Ex- 
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Brazil  and  the  Brazilians.    5th  thousand.    By  Rev.  D.  P. 

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trated  $3  00 

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ALLIBONE'S 

CRITICAL  DICTIONARY  OF  ENGLISH'  LITERATURE 

AND 

BRITISH  AND  AMERICAN  AUTHORS, 

LIVINGS-   ^HVTD    DECEASED; 

FROM    THE 

falhst  gictownis  to  %  Pibbk  of  %  Jfmttenti{j  Cenfttrg. 

Containing  more  than  30,000  Separate  Articles. 
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This  work  is  to  the  literature  of  the  English  language  what  John- 
son's or  Webster's  Dictionary  is  to  the  language  itself.  No  one  can 
now  maintain  a  respectable  position  in  literary  society,  or  even 
understand  many  references  in  his  daily  newspaper,  without  some 
knowledge  of  English  and  American  authors.  This  volume  supplies, 
at  a  trifling  cost,  more  than  he  could  acquire  for  himself  by  years 
of  study.  The  minister,  the  lawyer,  the  statesman,  the  politician, 
the  farmer,  the  soldier,  the  mechanic,  the  young  man  or  woman 
seeking  to  improve  the  mind,  will  here  find  accounts  of  the  books 
suited  to  their  wants,  and  notices  of  the  authors  of  such  books. 
Among  those  who  commend  the  first  volume  (all  which  is  now  pub- 
lished) are  LORD  BROUGHAM,  LORD  MACAULAY,  SIR  ARCHIBALD 
ALISON,  CARLYLE,  DICKENS,  SIR  HENRY  HOLLAND,  DE  QUINCEY, 
BISHOP  POTTER,  of  Pennsylvania,  DR.  DURBIN,  DR.  HODGE,  CARDI- 
NAL WISEMAN,  ARCHBISHOP  KENRICK,  EDWARD  EVERETT,  WASHING- 
TON IRVING,  DR.  JARED  SPARKS,  and  many  more  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  of  Great  Britain  and  America. 

Volume  I.  ($5.00)  contains  notices  of  17,449  authors. 
Copies  sent  by  mail,  free,  on  receipt  of  price, 


INTERESTING  AND  IMPORTANT  ANNOUNCEMENT 
TO  EVERY  THOUGHTFUL  READER! 


A  COMPLETE  HISTORY 

OF 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE. 


GEORGE  W.  CHILDS,  Nos.  628  &  630  Chestnut  Street,  Phila- 
delphia,  will,  on  the  1st  of  September,  1862,  publish,  in  one 
royal  octavo  volume  of  about  850  pages,  A  CRITICAL  HISTORY 
or  THE  DOCTRINE  OF  A  FUTURE  LIFE,  by  William  Rounseville  Alyer. 

This  work  will  present,  in  clear  and  attractive  form,  a  de- 
tailed exposition  of  the  whole  subject  of  a  future  life,  in  all  its 
branches  and  relations.  It  will  set  forth,  in  systematic  ar- 
rangement, an  exhaustive  account  of  all  the  opinions  of  man- 
kind on  this  solemn  and  fascinating  theme,  explaining,  in  their 
historic  order  of  time,  all  the  forms  of  this  cardinal  belief  of  the 
human  soul  which  have  prevailed  in  different  ages  and  in  dif- 
ferent nations. 

The  author  has  given  great  value  to  his  work  in  several  ways, 
in  addition  to  the  value  arising  from  his  profound  and  un- 
wearied researches, — researches  pushed  and  sustained  until  they 
have  thoroughly  explored  every  nook  and  cranny  of  the  vast 
province  under  investigation.  He  has  taken  extreme  pains  to 
make  his  history  winsome  and  acceptable  to  the  popular  mind, 
by  making  it  simple  and  transparent,  filling  it  with  poetic  feel- 
ing and  interesting  illustration.  Accordingly,  while  in  the 
highest  degree  learned  and  philosophic,  it  is  so  rapid,  animated, 
anecdotic,  that  it  will  be  found  by  every  thoughtful  person  as 
interesting  to  read  as  a  novel. 

Then  the  author  not  merely  describes  the  manifold  forms  of 
thought  and  sentiment  belonging  to  his  subject,  but  explains 
them, — accounts  for  their  origin  and  prevalence,  and  discusses 
their  validity. 

Furthermore,  to  compress  a  whole  library  into  one  volume 
and  make  his  treatise  absolutely  complete,  he  appends  a  de- 
scriptive catalogue  of  the  entire  literature  of  the  subject,  giv- 
ing all  the  information  needful  for  the  reader's  guidance  in 
relation  to  every  thing  of  importance  that  has  ever  been  pub- 
lished on  the  question  of  a  Future  Life.  This  list  comprises 
over  Jive  thousand  distinct  works,  which  are  all  classified  under 
appropriate  heads  and  in  chronological  order. 

The  Publisher  is  confident  that  these  features  will  recom- 
mend the  book  to  the  attention  of  the  general  public,  and  con- 
vince the  scholar — especially  the  theologian — that  he  cannot 
afford  to  be  without  it. 

1  vol  large  8vo,  handsomely  printed,  $3.50.  Sent  free  by 
mail  on  receipt  of  price. 


HOUSEHOLD  PICTURES  FOR  EVERY  FAMILY. 


T.  B.  WELCH'S  MAGNIFICENT 

PORTRAIT  OF  WASHINGTON. 

Engraved  (by  permission)  from  Stuart's  only  Original  Portrait,  is.  the 
Athenaeum,  Boston. 

THIS  SUPERB  PICTURE, 

Engraved  under  the  superintendence  of  THOMAS  SULLY,  Esq.,  the  eminent  and 
highly-gifted  artist,  is  the  only  correct  likeness  of  Washington  ever  published. 


The  engraving  now  submitted  to  the  examination  of  the  American  public  needs 
no  commendation  from  the  publisher  Never  before  was  WASHINGTON,  the  man  of  the 
age,  and  the  father  of  his  country,  so  distinctly  placed  before  the  public,  having  all 
the  features  of  his  character  shown  distinctly  in  his  countenance;  and  never  before, 
perhaps,  did  such  complete  success  attend  the  combined  labors  of  the  painter  and 
the  engraver.  STUART,  the  painter,  very  properly  considered  this  Portrait  as  his 
immortal  work;  and  WELCH,  the  engraver,  has  already  won  the  highest  expressions 
of  the  approbation  of  the  best  judges  of  the  art  in  Europe  and  the  United  States. 

From  Lieutenant-General  Winfield  Scott, 

DEAR  SIR:  —  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  compliment  of  the  beautifully 
engraved  likeness  of  Washington,  from  Stuart's  original  sketch,  which  1  well  re- 
member he  showed  me  with  just  pride,  some  years  before  his  death,  at  Boston. 

This  was  the  artist's  master-work,  so  often  copied  by  himself,  and  destined  to  bo 
re-copied  as  long  as  it  lasts.  Without  it  posterity  could  never  have  formed  a  correct 
notion  of  the  noble  head  and  expression  of  the  man  of  ages. 

The  engraving,  as  a  work  of  art,  strikes  me  as  worthy  of  the  subject  and  the  painter- 
With  great  esteem,  I  remain  yours  truly, 

G.  W.  CHILDS,  Esq.  WINFIELD  SCOTT. 


T.  B.  WELCH'S 

PORTRAIT  OF  JACKSON. 

Engraved  (by  permission)  from  Thomas  Bully's  only  Original  Portrait,  in  the 
possession  of  Francis  P,  Blair,  Esq. 

From  Francis  Preston  Blair,  Esq. 

DEAR  SIR:  —  I  thank  you  for  the  friendly  sentiments  of  your  letter,  and  the  earnest 
given  of  them  in  the  finely-engraved  likeness  of  General  Jackson  with  which  you 
have  honored  me. 

Sully's  picture  —  which  Welch  has  so  truly  rendered  in  his  capital  engraving  —  was 
taken  from  the  lifo  when  General  Jackson  visited  Philadelphia,  soon  after  the  Seminolo 
War.  The  portrait  gives,  with  a  perfect  delineation  of  his  countenance,  the  expression 
of  character  which  belonged  to  him  in  the  vigor  of  life.  The  General's  friends,  who 
then  lived  with  him  in  most  familiar  intercourse,  recognize  the  likeness  as  a  most 
striking  one. 

It  gratifies  me  highly  that  you  have  chosen  to  make  this  splendid  work  of  ono 
of  our  greatest  painters  the  companion-piece  of  Stuart's  noble  head  nf  Washington. 
They  will  adorn  the  home  of  every  American  whose  heart  is  touched  with  enthusiasm 
for  tho  great  Patriot  Chiefs  whose  fame  is  the  country's  glory. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Gso.  W.  CHILDS,  Esq.  F.  P.  BLAIR. 

Jigp-To  enable  all  to  possess  these  valuable  Portraits,  they  are  sold  at  the  low  price 
of  FIVE  DOLLARS  per  copy. 

Published  by  GEORGE  W.  CHII-DS, 
628  &  630  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia, 

Copies  sent  by  mail,  free,  on  receipt  of  price.    Agents  wanted. 


DR.  KANE'S  GREAT  WORK. 

ARCTIC  EXPLORATIONS  :  THE  SECOND  GRINNELL  EXPEDITION  IN 
SEARCH  OF  SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN,  during  the  Years  1853,  '54,  '55. 
By  ELISHA  KENT  KANE,  M.D.,  U.S.N.  Illustrated  with  upwards 
of  three  hundred  engravings  on  steel  and  wood,  drawn  by  JAMES 
HAMILTON,  Esq.,  from  the  original  sketches  by  the  author.  2  vols, 
8vo,  $5.00. 


DR.  KANE'S  FIRST  NARRATIVE. 

THE  UNITED  STATES  GRINNELL  EXPEDITION  IN  SEARCH  OF  SIB 
JOHN  FRANKLIN,  during  the  Years  1850-51.  A  Personal  Narra- 
tive. By  ELISHA  KENT  KANE,  M.D.,  U.S.N.  A  new  edition,  con- 
taining 200  steel  plates  and  wood  engravings,  including  a  fine 
steel  portrait  of  Sir  John  Franklin,  being  the  only  one  ever 
engraved  in  America.  Also,  a  BIOGRAPHY  OF  FRANKLIN,  by  S. 
AUSTIN  ALLIBONE,  Esq.  One  volume  8vo,  uniform  with  the  above, 
$3.00. 


DR.  ELDER'S  LIFE  OF  KANE. 

THE  LIFE  OF  ELISHA  KENT  KANE,  M.D.  By  DR.  WM.  ELDER.  One 
volume,  8vo,  $1.50.  This  book  contains  a  new  full-face  steel 
portrait  of  Dr.  Kane,  and  also  engravings  of  his  residence,  and 
his  tomb,  and  the  various  medals  presented  to  him.  It  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  all  who  possess  the  Personal  Narratives. 


PRISON-LIFE  IN  RICHMOND. 

PRISON-LIFE  IN  THE  TOBACCO  WAREHOUSE  AT  RICHMOND.  BY  A 
BALL'S  BLUFF  PRISONER,  LIEUT.  WM.  C.  HARRIS,  OF  COL.  BAKER'S 
CALIFORNIA  REGIMENT.  12mo.  Muslin,  75  cts;  paper,  50  cts. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAP.  I. — From  Ball's  Bluff  to  Richmond. — II.  Our  Prison. — III. 
A  Day  in  the  Officers'  Prison. — IV.  A  Day  in  the  Privates'  Prison. 
— V.  Pursuits  and  Pastimes. — VI.  Prison-Incidents. — VII.  Sun- 
day in  Prison. — VIII.  Our  Jailers. — IX.  Our  Visitors. — X.  Prison- 
Companions. — XI.  Homeward  Bound. — XII.  Richmond  Prison 
Association.  * 


13O,OOO  COPIES  SOLO. 


PETERSON'S  FAMILIAR  SCIENCE; 

OR, 

THE  SCIENTIFIC  EXPLANATION  OF  COMMON  THINGS, 

EDITED  BY  K.  E.  PETERSON, 

Member  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  Philadelphia. 

Entirely  New  and  Much  Enlarged  Edition,  to  which  is  added 
SOIENTIHO  AMUSEMENTS  FOE  YOUNG  PEOPLE, 

COMPRISING* 

Chemistry,  Crystallization,  Colored  Fires,  Curious  Experiments, 

Optics,  Camera  Obscura,  Microscope,  Kaleidoscope,  Magic 

Lantern,  Electricity,  Galvanism,  Magnetism, 

Aerostation,  Arithmetic,  etc., 


JOHN   HENRY  PEPPER, 

F.O.B.,  A.  INST.  C.E.,  LATE  PROFESSOR  OF  CHEMISTRY  AT  THE  ROYAL  POLYTECHNIC. 

With  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Illustrations.    Price  75  cts. 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  explain  scientifically,  but  in  the  simplest  language,  over 
two  thousand  questions  of  the  commonest  phenomena  of  life,  similar  to  those  which 
are  subjoined: — 


Why  does  lightning  turn  milk  and  beer 

so'ur  ? 

Why  does  fire  produce  light  and  heat? 
Why  will  not  wet  fuel  kindle  a  fire? 
Why  is  flame  yeil"W? 
Why  does  the  sun  shining  on  a  fire  make 

it  dull,  and  often  put  it  out? 
Why  do  hay-stacks  sometimes  catch  fire 

of  themselves  ? 
Why  do  chimneys  smoke? 
How  can  the  evil  be  remedied? 
Why  does  hard  work  produce  hunger  ? 
Why  does  a  tea-kettle  slug? 
Why  is  a  gray  morn  ing  a  sign  of  a  fine 

day  ? 

Why  is  a  gray  sunset  a  siirn  of  wet? 
Why  is  linen  colder  than  cotton? 


Why  does  dew  lie  more  plentifully  on 

grass  than  on  gravel  ? 
Why  are  countrymen  ruddy  and  citizens 


pale? 
Whv 


iv  does  lead  turn  dull  in  the  open  air? 
Why  is  mortar  adhesive,  and  why  dues  it 

become  hard  ? 
Why  is  snow  white? 
Why  does  salt  dissolve  ice? 
Why  is  a  rose  red — a  violet  blue — conls 

black — leaves  green — salt,  sugar,  froth, 

&c.,  white — potatoes  yellow — autumnal 

tints  brown? 
Why  do  fiddle-strings,  drums,  flutes,  &c., 

give  musical  sounds? 
Why  is  a  dew-drop  round? 
Why  are   morning    and  evening   clouds 

streaked  with  red  and  yellow? 

From  Professor  JAMFS  C.  BOOTH,  A.M.,  M.A.P.S.,  Author  of  the  Encyclopedia  of 
Chemistry;  Melter  and  Refiner  in  the  U.  S.  Mint;  Professor  of  Applied  Chemistry 
in  the  Franklin  Institute. 

DKAR  SIR: — I  have  examined  ''Familiar  Science"  with  some  care,  and  must  express 
a  hearty  approval  of  the  manner  in  which  the  most  ''common  things"  of  life  are 
familiarly  and  clenrly  explained,  without  sacrificing  the  correctness  of  science.  Em- 
bracing such  questions  as  are  usually  put  by  the  developing  mind  of  children,  with 
clear  ad  precise  answers,  it  will  relieve  parents  and  teachers  of  the  unhappy  neces- 
sity of  cru-hing  youthful  inquiry,  while  it  will  tend  to  nourish  a  spirit  of  reflection 
and  investigation  in  young  and  old.  I  commend  it  as  a  valuable  catechism  for  schools, 
and  for  amusement  and  instruction  at  the  fireside. 


IMPORTANT  ANNOUNCEMENT ! 


LOSSING'S 
PICTORIAL  HISTORY 

OP 

THE  GREAT  REBELLION. 

"The  very  thing  required  by  the  popular  taste  of  the  present  day,— adding  to  the 
advantage  of  a  clear  historical  narrative,  all  the  varied  illustrations  of  which  the 
subject  is  capable. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  Rebellion,  Mr.  Lossing  has  carefully  treasured  up  every 
thing  pertaining  to  it— DOCUMENTARY,  PICTORIAL,  and  NARRATIVE— with  the 
intention  of  preparing,  as  soon  as  practicable,  an  elaborate  illustrated  record  of  the 
events— HISTORICAL,  BIOGRAPHICAL.  MILITARY,  NAVAL,  TOPOGRAM1K  AL, 
POLITICAL,  and  SOCIAL.  His  intention  is  to  treat  the  subject  with  strict  impar- 
tiality, using  only  such  materials  as,  in  his  judgment,  may  not  be  questioned  as  to 
truthfulness  or  propriety.  He  proposes  to  make  it  a  book  of  facts  rather  than  of 
opinions;  and  will  endeavor  to  give  such  faithful  illustrations  of  men  and  things, 
connected  with  this  important  episode  in  the  history  of  the  United  States,  as  shall 
recommend  it  as  a  standard  work  on  its  great  subject  for  all  future  time.  To  do 
this,  he  will  go  to  every  place  of  interest  not  already  visited  by  him.  make  sketches, 
confer  with  civil  and  military  officers  and  people,  note  facts,  and  avail  himself  of  the 
fruits  of  the  pens  and  pencils  of  others,  so  far  as  he  may  be  peimitted.  Tlie  geiieial 
plan  of  his  work  will  be  like  that  of  his  PICTORIAL  FIELD-BOOK  OF  TIIE  REVO- 
LUTION, so  well  known  and  highly  appreciated  in  every  part  of  the  country ;  and, 
like  it,  his  SUPERB  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREAT  REBELLION  will  be  made  imme- 
diately available  for  consultation  by  means  of  a  copious  analytical  index.  The 
undersigned  takes  pleasure  in  announcing  that  he  has  made  arrangements  for  pub- 
lishing Mr.  Lossing's  great  work,  in  an  elegant  style  of  typography,  printed  on  tine 
white  paper.  It  will  be  issued  in  about  TWENTY  PARTS,  of  forty-eight  pages  each, 
at  Twenty-Five  Cents  a  Part,  making,  when  complete,  a  superb  volume  of  about  cue 
thousand  pages.  It  will  be  elegantly  illustrated  by  several  hundred  \Vood  l.ngiav- 
ings,  in  the  highest  style  of  the  art,  by  Lossiug  &  Barritt.  In  addition  to  the  Wood 
Engravings,  each  Part  will  contain  a  fine  Steel  Engraving,  representing  an  accurate 
portrait,  or  some  appropriate  historical  scene ;  making  twenty  steel  plates  in  the 
volume. 

From  the  Hon.  EDWARD  EVERETT,  D.C.L,,  &c, 

BOSTON,  March  11,  1862. 

DEAR  SIR: — I  have  examined  with  interest  and  pleasure  the  prospectu^or^r»  ,  . 
"PICTORIAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  GREAT  REBELLION,"  proposed  to  be  executed 
by  Mr.  Lossing.  I  feel  no  hesitation  in  expressing  the  opinion,  that  such  a  work, 
prepared  by  Mr.  Loosing,  will  be  of  great  value.  Mr.  Lossing's  diligence  in  exploring 
the  localities  which  he  describes,  his  fidelity  and  accuracy  as  an  historian,  and  the 
spirit  of  his  illustrations,  are  too  well  known,  from  his  volumes  which  are  already 
before  the  public,  to  need  any  recommendation. 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  respectfully  yours, 
GEO.  W.  CniLDS,  Esq.  EDWARD  EVERETT. 

4S="Person3  possessing  Pamphlets,  or  other  materials,  relating  to  the  Rebellion, 
will  confer  a  favor  by  sending  them  to  the  author,  Benson  J.  Lossing,  Esq.,  Pough- 
keepsie,  N.Y. 

GEORGE  W.  CHILDS,  Publisher, 

628  &  630  Chestnut  Street,  Philada. 


IPROSFECTTJS 

OF    THE 

KNOXVILLE  WHIG. 


THE  undersigned  proposes,  during  the  summer  of  1862,  to  resume 
the  publication  of  the  "KNOXVILLE  WHIG,"  and  hopes  to  start  with 
a  list  of  50,000  subscribers,  which  he  expects  to  increase  to  100,000 
at  no  distant  day.  It  will  be  a  large  WEEKLY  JOURNAL,  issued  every 
Saturday,  upon  good  paper,  handsomely  printed.  The  price  per 
annum  will  be  Two  DOLLARS,  invariably  in  advance;  and  when  the 
subscription  expires  the  paper  will  be  discontinued  unless  renewed 
in  due  time. 

The  'Whig'  will  be  INDEPENDENT  in  all  things  and  NEUTRAL  in 
nothing, — taking  a  hand  in  all  the  controversies  of  the  day.  It  will 
be  an  unconditional  Union  Journal,  holding  up  all  participants  in  the 
late  Rebellion — now  almost  played  out — as  a  choice  collection  of  men 
for  a  Rogues'  Gallery  !  At  the  same  time,  it  will  make  war  upon  all 
the  gamblers,  the  thieves,  North  and  South, — those  whose  trade  it  is 
to  rob  the  public,  as  well  as  private  pilferers,  the  whiskey-bloats,  the 
bullies  in  elections,  oppressors  who  grind  the  face  of  the  poor, 
extortioners  in  trade,  who  swindle  by  wholesale  and  retail,  and  all 
foul-mouthed  Secession  sympathizers  and  other  disturbers  of  the 
peace  in  the  various  sink-holes  of  society! 

RATES   OF  ADVERTISING. 

One  square,  of  twelve  lines  of  nonpareil,  one  insertion $  2.00 

Each  continuance  of  same  advertisement 1.00 

Half-square  of  six  lines,  per  year 10.00 

One  square  of  twelve  lines,  per  year 15.00 

Advertisements  will  be  considered  due  when  inserted,  except  those 
around  and  about  home,  with  whom  we  shall  keep  regular  accounts. 
Liberal  discounts  will  be  made  to  those  who  advertise  liberally. 
Finally,  if  you  want  any  thing, — if  you  have  any  thing  to  sell, — if  you 
want  to  buy  any  thing, — if  you  want  customers, — TELL  IT  TO  ONE 

HUNDRED    THOUSAND    PEOPLE    BY  ADVERTISING  IT  IN  A*  JOURNAL  THAT 
FRIENDS  AND  FOES  ALIKE  READ  ! 

jgg^All  orders  and  remittances  from  Northern  States  will  be  ad- 
dressed to  the  undersigned,  until  the  paper  is  received,  by  mail,  at 
PHILADELPHIA  or  CINCINNATI,  from  which  points  they  will  be  con- 
Teyed  to  me  by  Express.  Journals  friendly  to  me  will  confer  a 
great  favor  by  inserting  once  and  calling  attention. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW,  Editor  and  Publisher. 
PHILADELPHIA,  May,  1862. 


THIS   BOOK  IS  DUE  ON   THE   LAST  DATE 
STAMPED   BELOW 


RENEWED  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  IMMEDIATE 
RECALL 


JAN  2    1963 


i  ;  2  I966 


LIBRARY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  DAVIS 

Book  S1ip-35m-7,'62(D296s4)458 


:', 


Call  Number: 


BS>0 


247038 


